


Back ‘Home’

by MyExWifeStillMissesMe1



Series: After The End [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Bill is dead, Cos they’re better at moving the story forward than anyone else, Crash Site Omega, Dipper Has PTSD, Dipper Pines-centric, Dipper and Ford are the leads, Dipper and Ford have spy glasses, Dipper and Mabel are Really Fucked Up, Gen, Integrated AU, Loss of Limbs, Minor Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez/Melody, Piedmont Pines Twins, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-Weirdmageddon, Reverse Falls (Two Chapters), Swearing, The Pines Parents Find Out, The Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron, The multiverse, Time Travel, cybernetic limbs, not that much tho, return to the falls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 33,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26442676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyExWifeStillMissesMe1/pseuds/MyExWifeStillMissesMe1
Summary: Weirdmageddon is over. Bill has been defeated, but Dipper and Mabel have to leave Gravity Falls, their home, to go back to a place where no one knows what happened (This is part one of a sequel story to Gravity Falls. Part two will be out after this fic is finished).
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Ford Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Dipper Pines & Original Character(s), Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez/Melody, Wendy Corduroy & Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines
Series: After The End [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1922137
Comments: 1
Kudos: 44





	1. After Armageddon

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally posted on Fanfiction.net. OCs are just villains and supporting cast, there to move the plot forward and (hopefully) provide more depth to existing ones.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dipper has a nightmare and discovers coping mechanism.

“EENY. MEENY. MINY. YOU!” Bill shouted whilst flashing Dipper and Mabel’s zodiac symbols.

“WAIT!” Ford shouted desperately. “I surrender.”

Bill looked on with satisfaction. “Good choice.” He said, dropping Dipper and Mabel and removing Stan and Ford’s cage.

“Don’t do it Ford, it’ll destroy the universe!” Stan said, shaking Ford.

“OH, EVEN WHEN YOU’RE ABOUT TO DIE YOU PINES TWINS JUST CAN’T GET ALONG.” Bill said, mockingly. Glowing red ropes tied Stan down.

“My only condition is that you let my brother and the kids go.” Ford said.

“FINE.”

Dipper and Mabel looked on in horror. “No, Grunkle Ford don’t trust him!” Dipper yelled. Ford walked towards Bill.

“IT’S A DEAL!” Bill shouted, his hand being engulfed in blue fire and his voice echoing through the halls of the Fearamid. Ford reached out and shook the flaming hand. Bill’s body turned to stone and a transparent version of him appeared. He laughed and entered Ford’s mind. The ropes around Stan vanished. A few minutes later, Bill exited Ford’s mind. Glowing red ropes tied down Mabel, Stan and Ford. Bill snapped his fingers Dipper looked on in horror as his family turned to dust.

“You two had a deal!” He said with tears in his eyes.

“WE DID.” Dipper was sure that if Bill had a mouth he would be smiling. “BUT NOW WE DON’T.” Bill reared back and shot a light blue beam out of his eye. Just as it was about to hit Dipper, he shot up out of bed, startled and confused. It was just a dream. A bad one, sure, but he’d had his fair share of those recently. They were all the same: Bill winning. He had one where he succeeded in destroying the journal then threw his body off of the water tower. There was one where instead of turning Ford to gold, he burnt him alive. Dipper got up out of bed slowly. He looked at his hands. They were shaking. He sighed. Before Gravity Falls he loved sleep. There was just something about the peace and quiet that was comforting, but now he was plagued by constant nightmares reminding him that for every good thing that happened in Gravity Falls, there was a traumatic memory to go along with it. He looked at his clock. It read, ‘5:07am.’ It wasn’t like he got any sleep these days anyway. He looked at the scrap of paper on his wall. It was covered in various signatures from his friends and family in Gravity Falls. He opened his desk drawer in his desk to reveal a blue journal with a silver pine tree on the front. Scattered around it were multiple test tubes from an old science kit he used to use. They were labeled, ‘invisible ink.’ There were also two black lights and some feathers to use when he was writing in the invisible ink. He really needed to hide all this stuff, his journal contained as complete of a log of his summer as he could get and as many notes that he could remember about Gravity Falls’ creatures. It would be hard to explain that away without telling his parents the truth. Telling them what had happened had been something he and Mabel had discussed on the bus. They agreed that they might not be able to go back if they told their parents even the mildest of stories. Dipper thought that his mother would probably have a stroke if she heard about Dipper getting possessed or god forbid, Weirdmageddon. A major factor in Dipper’s reluctance to reveal the truth was not wanting to relive certain events, those two being the main ones. He remembered getting off the bus and being welcomed home. He didn’t have the heart to explain to his parents that home was the place he had left over six hours ago. Tomorrow was the first day of school and he was not looking forward to it in the slightest. He hated school at the best of times (even though he did rather well in it), but he suspected that his experiences in Gravity Falls would make socialising hard (and he wasn’t exactly a social animal at the best of times). Sighing, he picked up the vial of invisible ink and one of the feathers. Quietly, he unscrewed the vial’s top and dipped the feather in. Picking up the blacklight, he walked over to a bare bit of wall and turned it on. His hands were shaking vigorously. He began writing.

Dipper stepped onto the bus and caught his breath. Just last week he wasn’t even sure if he would live to see the rickety old vehicle again. But of course, no one but Mabel knew that. As far as everyone else was concerned, the twins had had a rather boring summer in some random town in Oregon that wasn’t on any maps, living with some creepy old relative that they hardly knew. Dipper chuckled inwardly at how wrong they were. It was odd, knowing such a huge secret. Dipper was willing to bet a great deal of money that him and Mabel were the only people in the state who had photographic evidence of supernatural creatures. They had decided that they were going to hide Mabel’s scrapbook. They hadn’t decided where yet, but they would think of something. Dipper sat down near the front of the bus. Mabel went to the back with her friends. People sometimes assumed that he was annoyed when Mabel did this, but that wasn’t the case. He had a very limited tolerance for social interaction and Mabel tended to use it all up on occasion. He went through his phone, looking at all the apps on it. He’s pretty sure he deleted half of them on that bus journey. Past him would have never even thought about doing that. Sometimes he wished that he could go back in time and see how his younger self would react to it. All of it. He looked at his texts. No new messages.

“Hello.” A person with a familiar English accent said. Dipper turned to look at his friend. With all the craziness that went on in Gravity Falls, he had completely forgotten about Lance. He wondered if he could tell him. He’d never believe him. Before the summer, he had thought of Lance as his best friend other than Mabel. Now, that spot was firmly taken by Wendy, Soos a close second. Come to think of it, he’d even put Pacifica pretty close to the top.

“Hi.”

“So how was the Gravity Falls; the place that’s so boring it’s not even on any maps?” Dipper was slightly shocked that someone would describe Gravity Falls as a ‘boring.’ To him it was anything but. Then again, there was no way that Lance could know how important the town was to him, so he brushed it off.

“Actually, it was really fun.” Dipper said. Lance looked at him with a face of complete bewilderment.

“You have got to be joking.” He said. “Are you telling me that you actually enjoyed yourself there? You’re not pulling my leg or anything?”

“Nope.”

“Well, that’s a shocker. By the way, who’s that hot fifteen year-old you friended on Facebook?”

“Hm?” Dipper said, snapping out of his train of thought. “Oh, Wendy. She’s a friend that I made in Gravity Falls.” A friend. That was hideously understating it, but he couldn’t say she was ‘more than a friend.’ That would imply something else.

“And I’m friends with Morgan Freeman. I’ll believe it when I see it.” Lance laughed. “Dipper Pines, nerd extraordinaire; friends with a fifteen year-old.”

“Ha ha.” Dipper fake laughed.

“I texted you yesterday. When you were supposed to get back. New phone?”

“Oh, I lost the old one.” Dipper said. The old flip-phone he had once used to call a clone of himself was in fact destroyed during Weirdmageddon. Just another story he couldn’t tell. He looked at his smartphone. Him and Mabel’s parents had gotten each of them one as a birthday present. “Sorry for not texting you back. It was a pretty crazy summer.” Dipper was pretty sure that his definition of crazy and Lance’s were pretty different.

“What was the craziest thing that happened then?” Lance said. He looked at his friend, who appeared to be deep in thought. He looked into Dipper’s eyes and saw the eyes of someone who had faced his worst fears and lived to tell the tale.

“I got arrested.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m not kidding.” Dipper said. “Grunkle Stan got me and Mabel arrested for making counterfeit bills.”

“Have you told your parents about it?” Lance asked. Dipper realised that revealing that adventure would pale in comparison to certain other ones.

“Nope.”

“What else did you do?”

“Fishing. Fishing was fun. How was your summer?” Dipper deflected the question. As they talked, Lance puzzled over his friend’s response. It was so mysterious. He had a similar look in his eyes to people in war documentaries. It puzzled him to no end. He knew Dipper well and knew when he was hiding something. He remembered Dipper being a terrible liar, but not any more. Something was amiss. Or he was just being paranoid. “Hello? Hello? HELLO?!” His train of thought was broken by Dipper waving a hand in front of his face. “Come on.” Dipper stepped off of the bus. He looked at the school and realised something: his life would never be normal again. Before Gravity Falls he rarely had dreams, let alone nightmares. These days he was lucky if he only had one throughout the night.

“HELLO!” Dipper whipped around to a fighting stance, then dropped it when he realised it was Mabel.

“Don’t scare me like that. I almost punched you.” 

“Sorry.” Mabel said as the two of them walked into the school. “Anyway, HELLO!”

“We literally talked ten minutes ago.”

“Well well well.” A voice said. Dipper froze. That was something Bill used to say. He turned around.

“Hello Trevor.”

“You know what comes next. Hand it over.” He was talking about his lunch money.

“No.”

“What, you gonna get your sister to protect you?”

“No.” Dipper said. Trevor was slightly taken aback by his confidence. Dipper beckoned Mabel away. Once, Mabel would have never done that. Now, she knew Dipper could hold his own. Lance watched from the sidelines.

“Oh bloody hell, what’s he gotten himself into now?” He said as Trevor grabbed Dipper by the collar of his shirt.

“Give it to me, or I’ll take myself.”

“Try me.” Trevor pulled back his fist for a punch. Dipper caught it just as the fist was about to hit him. Trevor was shocked, but no matter how hard he pushed he couldn’t move his hand forward. Then Dipper promptly kneed him in the crotch. Lance winced, as did the few other guys that were watching. Trevor collapsed on the floor and Dipper walked away. Lance followed him.

“That was impressive.” He said. “Where’d you learn to fight like that?”

“My great-uncle taught me.” Dipper said as he walked up to one of the many lockers and opened it. Lance took the one next to him. Mabel’s was in the other locker room. As Lance was putting all the books he wouldn’t need for today away, he noticed Dipper pulling out a blue book with a silver pine tree on the front. “What’s that?” He asked.

“Nothing.” Dipper shoved the book in his locker and quickly closed the door. “What class do you have first?” He changed subject.

“Math. You?”

“P.E.” Dipper said. Truth be told, he was neither looking forward to gym nor dreading it. On one hand, it would be easy now (Globnar had proven that). On the other, he still bore the marks of Weirdmageddon. He knew some of his injuries would scar; in fact he had noticed one on his chin during the bus ride. He walked into the changing room.

“Hey!” Dipper looked in the direction of the shout. His friend Ethan was standing at the far corner of the room. Dipper knew that Lance suspected something was up; he was very perceptive. Ethan… not so much.

“Hello there.” Dipper said.

“Hi.”

“You didn’t say it.”

“Fuck.” Ethan swore. “How are you?”

“Good. Good.” Dipper lied. He really hoped no one questioned the bags under his eyes (which were even bigger than usual). “So, how was it without me?”

“Boring. Although there was that one time where Lance ran into a lamppost.”

“Well, I’m gonna lore that over his head forever.”

“Hey dipshit!” Someone shouted from the back of the room. “Nice hat, you look like a lumberjack!”

“Thanks!” Dipper shouted back. Mabel had taught him that the way to deal with criticism was to perceive it as a compliment. He pulled off his shirt. “What?” He said. Ethan looked at him in bewilderment.

“What the hell happened to you?” He asked, pointing at the scars, cuts and bruises covering his friend’s upper body.

“Errrrr… big woodpecker.” Dipper said as he pulled his gym shirt on.

Mabel walked into her first class of the day. Art. She sat down next to her friend Rachel. “HELLO!” She shouted at the top of her lungs.

“HELLO!” Rachel shouted back.

“HELLO!”

“HELLO!”

“HEL-”

“Can you try to be a little more mature?” The teacher asked, cutting Mabel’s greeting off.

“TAXES!” Mabel shouted as she shoved Rachel. They laughed.

Dipper walked into the house. Mabel followed behind. He shut the door and locked it. He ran up to his room and went to his bookcase. He pulled some books out and placed them on his desk. Mabel walked into the room holding a hammer. Taking it from her, he smashed it against the wall multiple times. He kept at it until there was a rather large hole. He walked over to his desk and pulled his journal out of his bag. He placed it in the hole. He grabbed the tubes of invisible ink, the feathers and the black lights and shoved them in there too. He opened another desk drawer. He pulled the height-altering flashlight out of it and placed it in the hole. Then he picked up the books and covered up the hole with them. He made another hole in Mabel’s room, this time behind a poster. It wasn’t ideal, but Mabel didn’t have many books. Mabel put that summer’s scrapbook in the hole and placed the poster over it. Her brother turned to leave. She sat down and sighed. “Dipper?” She said. He looked at her. “Have you been having nightmares about… him?” Dipper sat next to her on his bed.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I’ve been having them ever since he possessed me. But after Weirdmaggedon they’ve just gotten worse. It doesn’t help that I don’t really have anyone to talk to other than you about it.” They were silent for what felt like an eternity.

“This is all my fault. I never should have trusted-” Dipper cut her off.

“No, it wasn’t. You got tricked. So did me and Great-Uncle Ford.”

“Thanks.” Mabel said, her voice shaking.

“I should show you something.” Dipper said. He got up and beckoned for Mabel to follow him. They walked into his room and he retrieved the black light from its secret compartment. He pointed it at the wall and turned it on.

Mabel gasped.


	2. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dipper has a panic attack, then gets some good news.

Over a month had passed since Dipper and Mabel had returned to Piedmont. They had already gained a reputation for being the people that you do not mess with on any occasion, ever. Even their friends had become somewhat intimidated by them. There were rumours going around the school about what happened during their summer holiday. Some people thought that they had joined a cult. Others thought that their parents abandoned them in the woods the whole time to toughen them up. Of course, none of the rumours were true. The truth was far, far cooler. “Mum, we’re going!” Mabel shouted from the door.

“I’ll miss you.” Helen Pines said, hugging them.

“You say that every day!” Dipper’s muffled voice came from somewhere inside the three-way hug.

“That’s because I miss you two every day.” Helen said, releasing them. She looked at her watch. “God, look at the time! You better go. Bye!”

“Bye!” The twins said in unison as they walked off. Helen looked at them sadly. She knew something had happened in Gravity Falls, she wasn’t blind. She just didn’t know what. She’d called Stan about it, but he said that nothing out of the ordinary happened. She’d combed each one of their rooms for any clues, but didn’t find anything. She’d pestered them non-stop with the ‘if something happened you can tell us, you know that?’ line, but it never worked. Whatever secret her children were keeping, they weren’t planning on sharing it any time soon. She had noticed that they had become much closer though. Nightmares had become a bit of a sore topic between the family. She and her husband could hear the twins having them and comforting each other, but when asked about it they would just say it was a bad dream. She was worried about them, and she wasn’t going to turn a blind eye to the strange injuries and scars they had received. Or any of their other, less physical changes.

Dipper walked into the school confidently. Stan once taught him about a lesson he once learned: being respected is great, but being feared is so much better. It was a statement he couldn’t agree more with, although somewhat ironically. He was… well, feared wasn’t the right word. People were intimidated him and Mabel now. Then he remembered what class he had after D&T.

“Fuck.” Way to put a damper on his good mood.

“Right!” Their teacher, Mrs. Roberts said. “Let’s get started then, shall we?” She stood at the front of the classroom. The Pines twins sat at the front of the class. She silently cursed under their breath. She was really hoping that they would be off today. Those kids just had an aura around them that rubbed her the wrong way. Their middle-school teachers described Dipper as quiet and reserved. She didn’t know what to call him, but reserved wasn’t it. Mabel was supposed to loud. Just loud. Loud and creative. She was those things, but not to the extent her previous teachers said she was. You didn’t need to be a psychologist to see that both of them had some issues, but their records said nothing about such things. It could have been a traumatic event, but the parents usually informed the school about that. She had heard that Dipper kept a Swiss Army knife on him at all times, but no one had ever found any proof of it. The same could be said for Mabel and her grappling hook, except everyone knew that she always carried it with her, but had given up trying to get it off her because they knew she was responsible with it. “Today we’re going to continue with trigonometry.” She said. The twins tensed up. She didn’t know why, but they seemed to always be on edge whenever they were covering a topic that included triangles. Maybe they had an altercation with the illuminati over the summer. Who knows? It was certainly more plausible than the truth (of course, Mrs. Roberts didn’t know that). “I’m going to hand out these worksheets.” She said. “You need to hand them in before the end of the period. Got it?” The class nodded. She went about handing out the sheets to the class.

A sheet of paper was placed on Dipper’s desk. It was basically covered in triangles. Placing his trapper hat down on his desk, he took a deep breath and tried to concentrate. His hands were shaking. When they had started trigonometry, people had commented on how scared he and Mabel looked during the class. They had since stopped that after he had made his thoughts very clear. He looked over to his sister. She was much better at hiding it than him, be he knew she was just as scared. He had to keep reminding himself that Bill was dead and he was just getting worked up over three connecting lines. Past him would have thought that someone with such an irrational fear was just silly. Look at him know, terrified of a 2-D shape. “Concentrate.” He thought to himself. Math was one of the two classes they had together, which was good. It meant they could be there for their twin if they decided to have a panic attack or something during class. He worked through the sheet and got to the last question. The last one was a yellow, equilateral triangle. He couldn’t take it any more, he needed a break. He got up and walked over to the teacher, trying not to look like he’d just watched The Exorcist. “C-c-can I go to the bathroom please?” He said, stuttering slightly. He’d noticed that it started whenever he was reminded of Bill. He found his stutter rather annoying, it made him sound like a broken record player. Recently, it was becoming more frequent. Mrs. Roberts looked at the panic-stricken student standing in front of her. She knew full well he wasn’t going to the toilet.

“Dipper, if you need to take a moment, you just need to ask.” She said carefully.

“O-o-okay.” He stumbled out of the classroom, panting heavily. “Come on Dipper.” He thought to himself. “Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.” He continued like this for another thirty seconds or so. He leaned against the wall and sighed. Mabel popped her head out from the door a minute or so later and saw him curled up in a ball on the floor outside of class. She looked at him sadly.

“This is all your fault.” She thought to herself. “If it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t be like this. Oh, piss off negative thoughts! It doesn’t matter whose fault it is, all that matters is that you try help him.”

“Hey bro-bro. I brought you your hat.” She said as she walked over to him.

“Thanks M-M-Mabel.” He took it from her. She sat down beside him.

“Are you okay?” She asked. He nodded slightly whilst pulling the hat onto his head. “Don’t lie to me Dipper. You’re stuttering again and you’re curled up in a vibrating ball of human misery. You’re not okay.” They sat there for maybe ten minutes. “Do you need an awkward sibling hug?” Mabel asked eventually.

“Y-yeah.” He said. Mabel hugged him and he returned it.

“Pat pat.” They said in unison, Dipper’s voice beginning to return to normal.

“Th-th-th-thanks.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I really needed that.” Mabel silently winced. She hated it when he stuttered like that. It just served as a reminder that Dipper’s… less than ideal mental state was her fault.

“Anytime, broseph. Now let’s go back in and finish that worksheet!” She shouted as she pulled him up from the floor.

“Are you trying to rupture m-my eardrums?” Dipper asked, a small smile on his face. They walked back into the classroom and sat down at their respective desks. Before, people would have found someone having a panic attack in school odd. Now it was normal, if you were in any of Dipper or Mabel’s classes that is. “Focus.” Dipper thought to himself as he picked up his calculator then immediately dropped it, due to his hands still shaking. He leaned down to retrieve it from under his desk. You can do this.” He started the sum. “34°.” He realised five minutes later. “The answer is thirty-four degrees. I did it? I did it!” He picked up his sheet of paper and walked to the front of the room. He dropped it on the pile. Mrs. Roberts looked at him.

“Thank you.” She said, feeling pity for the boy. She turned her attention back to her computer as Dipper sat down. He visibly relaxed. Five minutes later, the bell rang. Everyone began to shuffle out the class. “You two.” She gestured at Dipper and Mabel. “A word please.” The twins turned towards her. “Look, I don’t know what all… that was about, but you should make sure you’re talking to someone about it.” They both nodded. She sighed. “You can go now.” She watched the two twins walk out of the room. What confused her the most was when she looked at their eyes. They didn’t have the innocent eyes of a twelve year-old. They both had the eyes of someone who had seen things no one should ever see, let alone a child.

Dipper sighed a sigh of relief the second he left the classroom. It was like a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Thankfully, it was break next. He and Mabel sat down on a bench outside. “Are you alright now?” Mabel asked, cautiously.

“Yeah.” Dipper said, his stutter gone. “You?”

“I’m fine.” Mabel replied.

“You can go sit with your friends if you want.”

“Are you sure?” Dipper’s phone rang. He pulled it out. It was Wendy. He smiled.

“Yeah.” He said. “I’ll be fine. See you at lunch.”

“Okay. Bye.” As Mabel walked off, Dipper looked at his phone and answered it.

“Hello?” He said into the phone. He started walking over to a more secluded area of the school. He couldn’t risk people hearing him talk about his experiences.

“Hey dude.” Wendy replied. Dipper smiled. He had chatted to her just two days ago, yet it felt like it had been months since they had last talked. “How are you?”

“Better.” Dipper said. This was partially true. He was better, if only slightly. Whilst the nightmares had gotten less frequent (by a very small margin), the rest of his symptoms had gotten worse. “I think I just had a panic attack in trigonometry.”

“Tough break. You okay now?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dipper replied.

“And I think it’s rough here. I can’t imagine having only the one person to talk to about it.”

“It’s pretty difficult.” He said. Wendy sighed.

“Dude, I’ve been thinking about this and… I think you should tell your parents.” Whilst it was nice to know that Wendy was thinking about him, he had made his mind up on that front over a month ago.

“What? And never be able to come back to Gravity Falls?”

“You don’t know that they’re gonna say that.”

“Yes I do. And if dealing with the occasional nightmare is what it takes, I’m willing to do it.”

“But there’s your problem dude; it’s not just the occasional nightmare. It’s every night. You just had a panic attack in school.” Wendy sighed. “They might not let you come back. But that’s better than living like that.”

“They won’t understand.” Dipper heard Wendy make a, ‘hm?’ sound, so he elaborated. “I mean, they do understand. For a while. Then they want you to get over it and move on, even when you know that’s not possible. You can’t just turn off the way you feel about something.” “Or someone.” He thought to himself. “Look, I’ll tell them eventually. I can’t keep a secret this big forever, but not right now.”

“Okay. I won’t push it. But I actually called to talk to you about something else.”

“Oh. What?”

“So I was thinking, the October break is coming up. I’ve got nothing planned. So I was like, me and Soos could visit you guys. If it’s okay with your parents of course.”

Suddenly, everything was fantastic.

“Y-yeah!” Dipper said, stumbling over his words in his excitement. “That’d be great! I don’t think we have much planned either. I’ll ask when we get home tonight.” Then a thought crossed his mind. “Wait, how is Soos able to come? Doesn’t he have to run the Shack?”

“Shack’s pretty dead this time of year. Him and Melody decided to close up for the holidays. Melody’s supposed to be visiting family back in Portland.”

“How are they?” Dipper asked.

“What, Melody and Soos? They’re getting along great. It like they’re made for each other, I swear.” Wendy paused. “Don’t tell him I said this, but Soos is planning to propose, like next month. He’s got a great ring picked out and everything. Booked a fancy restaurant too.”

“Really?” Dipper said, happy for his friend. “That’s great!”

“I know, right!” Dipper could hear the sound of a bell ringing in the background. “I gotta go, catch you later.”

“Oh. Ehhhhh, later then! Bye Wendy!” He heard the distinct sound of her hanging up. He immediately called Mabel.

“Hello.” She answered.

“Mabel, I have two amazing things to tell you!”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Mabel squealed as they were walking home from the bus stop. “Our two best friends are coming! And the holidays start in, like four days! And Soos might be getting married!”

“We still have to convince Mum and Dad, remember?”

“Oh, yeah.” Mabel scratched her chin. “They’re reasonable, they’ll say yes!”

“Okay, let me do the talking.” Dipper said. Mabel nodded. Whilst she had good social skills, Dipper’s far more grounded and logical arguments tended to be more persuasive. Dipper walked into the kitchen whilst Mabel listened from the behind the door. “Hi mum.”

“Hello Dipper.” She looked around. “Where’s Mabel?”

“Oh, she, uh…” Dipper stammered, unprepared for the question. “She… well, she… went upstairs to… chat with her friends. Ahem. Yeah. That’s what happened. Obviously.”Helen smiled.

“So mum,” Dipper began.

“You’re saying ‘mum’ like that again. That means you want something.”

“So mum, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, remember how I told you about Wendy and Soos?”

“Yes, they sounded quite nice.” Helen said. She could see where this was going.

“Can they maybe come over for the October break? Please?” His mother sighed and nodded.

“Okay. But I’ll have to talk it over with your father first.” Dipper smiled She could see her plan coming together. Dipper once mentioned Soos was a bit of a blabbermouth. She could get him to come over, then try to find out what happened in Gravity Falls from him. She didn’t think she’d have much luck with Wendy though. She’d never met her, but apparently she was good at keeping secrets. A mischievous smile crept across her face.

“Mum? Mum? Mum?” She looked over at Dipper. “You’ve been staring into space for a minute and a half.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“So, it’s a yes then?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks!” Dipper ran up and hugged her. She felt a fast moving object slam into her back.

“Hello!” Mabel shouted in a pitch so high you could only replicate it by trying to bounce a basketball off of a hyena’s face. “I was listening through the door.” Helen looked at Dipper skeptically.

“I didn’t know.” He lied.

“Right.” She said with a smile.

Later that night, Helen was lying in bed with her husband Robert. “I think we should let them come. They’ve not been acting like themselves since Gravity Falls. It could help them. Plus, maybe we could find out what happened.”

“I agree, but you shouldn’t be using this as a chance to plot another devious scheme! The kids are smart, if they’re keeping a secret from us it’s probably for a good reason.” Bob said.

“Well, it must be a huge one, even Stan’s in on it. Then again, he’s a pathological liar.”

“And now so is Mabel.” Bob sighed. “Look honey, you might have to accept that nothing happened in Gravity Falls. Maybe Stan just worked his magic and toughened them up a little.”

“Oh yeah, because that explains the sudden fear of triangles, doesn’t it.”

“I’m just saying…”

“They want to go back.” Helen said. Bob paused.

“I mean, with how much they loved the place I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Are you siding with them?”

“No. Okay maybe a little. They made great friends and grew close with Stan. I even heard Dipper say he’d like to move there one day. I don’t see why they can’t go back.”

“I know, I know. I just don’t think they should.”

“Well maybe we could come to a compromise.”

“What’s that?” Helen asked.

“We go with them.” There was the distinct sound of someone spitting a mouthful of water out of their mouth from downstairs.

“See?” Helen said. “There wouldn’t be a spit-take if there wasn’t a secret.


	3. Origin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Pines parents meet Soos and Wendy and a new villain emerges.

“I bet you… ten quid that that guy’s gonna die.” Lance said, pointing at the TV.

“Ten what?” Dipper responded. They were watching a TV show about the supernatural at Dipper’s house. Lance enjoyed it because it was a good show. Dipper liked it for that reason too, but it was also incredibly entertaining to watch the show get basically everything about the supernatural factually wrong.

“Ten quid – it means ten pounds. In other words, ten dollars.”

“I’ll take that bet.”

“Deal.” Lance extended his hand out. Dipper moved his arm away cautiously.

“I-I don’t… I don’t do h-handshakes.” He said. Lance was taken aback by his sudden change in attitude.

“Really?” He responded. “Because before the summer you had no problem with them. You didn’t have a fear of triangles or the colour yellow.” He leaned in closer. “And you didn’t have that stutter. So tell me what happened.”

“Play dumb.” Dipper thought to himself. “What’s a t-triangle?” “Not that dumb, you fucking idiot!” He laughed.

“I just want to help.” Lance went back to watching the show. A scream could be heard coming from the speakers. “Shit.” He handed Dipper a ten-dollar bill with the back facing up. Dipper shuddered and pocketed it.

“Hey, whatcha watching, some nerd thing?” Mabel said, appearing behind them.

“Actually, it’s a very well-constructed supernatural show with a good plot and strong characters that even with it’s less than realistic premise, manages to stay grounded in reality.” Lance said, all in one breath. Dipper chuckled.

“So some nerd thing then. What’s happening?”

“Well, the ghost is rampaging around the house for no apparent reason,” Dipper began. “And he wants to… to, oh. I, uh. I-I-I’ll be b-back in a s-sec.” Mabel winced as he walked off. Lance looked on in confusion.

“What was all that about? It was only someone getting possessed. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“I guess it’s just another mystery.” Mabel shrugged. She went to go upstairs, but thought better of it. She should just leave Dipper in peace. It was a Friday and school had went past without too many incidents. They had been tense in trigonometry, sure, but nothing serious. Wendy and Soos were supposed to arrive tonight.

Dipper lay on his bed and sighed. Pulling up his his sleeve, he looked at the fork-shaped scars on his arms. They were dwarfed by his bigger ones, but they reminded him of one of his most painful memories. He picked up his phone and texted Mabel. Is the possession bit over?

Yeah. Came the reply. He got up and walked to the door. Then stubbed his toe.

Lance was sitting on the couch waiting for Dipper to come back. It puzzled him; they had watched a horror movie a few days ago and he didn’t flinch, yet when someone gets possessed for comedic purposes, he bolts out the room like he’s going to have a heart attack. Suddenly, he heard a shout.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Came a muffled voice from upstairs, followed by the sound of something heavy being knocked over. A few moments later, Dipper walked down the stairs and sat down next to Lance. “Not a word.”

“Hey, I’m making coffee and I thought, maybe you two would like some.” Mabel said as she walked into the room. Dipper had taken up coffee after Weirdmageddon to help him stay awake during the day since, especially right after it happened he barely got any sleep. He couldn’t be falling asleep in school, for two reasons. One, he just didn’t want to fall asleep there and two, it would be hard to explain away waking up screaming in the middle of class.

“You know how to make mine, right?” He asked. Mabel nodded.

“Can I just have a cup of tea please?” Lance asked. “One teabag, some milk and no sugar.”

“God, you’re so English.” Dipper muttered under his breath.

“Oh, you’re not gonna leave us on that cliffhanger are you? Fuck off!” Lance shouted as the screen faded to black. He turned to Dipper. “What do you want to watch now?”

“The Duchess Approves is on.”

“Is that like Coronation Street?” Dipper looked at him in confusion. “It’s a really boring soap opera we have back in England.” He said as Dipper turned the programme on.

“Is that The Duchess Approves? I wanna watch!” Mabel shouted as she vaulted over the couch to sit down next to Dipper.

“Oh yeah, because this isn’t nerdy but our show is.” Lance said. Dipper’s phone buzzed. It was from Ford.

Hello Dipper. I managed to get a TV connection on the boat. Can you believe it? Stanley got me into The Duchess Approves and I haven’t been able to stop watching it recently. In other news, we caught a rather large cycloptopus the other day. How are you? Are your nightmares getting better? Is Mabel okay? - Ford

Good job on the connection. We’re actually watching that show right know. As for the nightmares… slightly. Everything else is way worse. I picked up a bit of a stutter that comes whenever I’m reminded of him. So overall, I’m… okay. Mabel’s in the same boat as me. Dipper replied.

I’m sorry to hear that it’s getting worse. Didn’t you tell me that Wendy and Soos were coming over?

Yeah. Do you think they can help?

I’d say there’s a high probability. Shit, I have to go. The cycloptopus has jumped on Stanley’s face again.

Bye. Dipper selected all the messages and deleted them. If he didn’t, he was bound to get caught talking about supernatural stuff. He turned his phone off and diverted his attention back to the TV.

“Oh bloody hell, look at the time.” Lance said when the episode was finished. “I can’t say I enjoyed watching the old person boring movie channel. Bye.” He walked out the door. Ten minutes later, Dipper heard a knock. He dashed to the door and got there just before Mabel did. He pulled it open. Wendy was standing there, axe in hand.

“Hey dork.” She said. “Whoa.” She noticed the huge bags under his eyes. “Doesn’t look like you got much sleep.” Dipper looked behind him.

“Yeah,” He whispered. “I’ve not gotten much at all since… h-him. Don’t mention any of the weirdness, especially y-you-know-who.” Wendy did the action of zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the key. “And don’t mention Great-Uncle Ford.” She nodded.

“Hello.” Robert said, walking up to the door. “You must be Wendy.”

“And you must be the Mr. Pines I’ve heard absolutely nothing about.” Wendy said. Robert laughed.

“Call me Bob.” He said, holding out his hand for Wendy to shake it.

“Oh, uh, I, we, uh… don’t, don’t do handshakes.”

“Oh.” “What a surprise.” Robert thought to himself “So where’s… Soos?” “Or is it Zeus? I can never remember his name.”

“He’s is just getting some of the luggage out of the boot.” Robert cleared his throat.

“What?” Mabel asked.

“Well, what’re you waiting for, a kiss on the cheek? Go help him!”

“Oh, yeah. That.” Mabel said as she ran off to the familiar truck.

“You too.” Dipper followed his sister.

“Soos!” Mabel shouted as they walked to the back of the car.

“Dudes!” He fist-bumped her. “Hey hambone. Heya Dipper!”

“Hey Soos.” Dipper said with a smile whilst pulling a suitcase out from the boot. “Remember: don’t say anything about any of the weirdness. Got it?” Soos nodded. They walked into the house. 

“Whoa!” He looked around. “This place is nice.”

“It’s too clean.” Dipper replied. Ever since he first step foot into the Mystery Shack, he had always liked it more. There was just something about its ramshackle appearance that he always liked. “I prefer the Shack. Speaking of which, how’s that going?”

“Great! Me and Melody are loving it.”

“That’s good.” Dipper nodded. “Come on.” He walked up to the door. Wendy was still talking with Bob. As they entered the house, Helen exited the kitchen.

“Whoa.” Wendy gasped. “Something smells good.”

“Hello.” Helen said. “You must be Wendy.”

“Yep.”

“And… Soos, was it?”

“Yeah. Handyman of the apocalypse, at your service.” Soos said. Mayor Cutebiker had actually appointed him to that position after Weirdmageddon because of how many people Soos had helped (plus, that’s how he had been introducing himself to people since he first took up the mantle anyway).

“…Okay?”

“I’m just kidding.” Soos lied.

“So you’re Stan’s employees.” Helen said, unaware of Stan’s actual whereabouts.

“Well, not-” Soos was cut off by Wendy.

“Yeah!” She cleared her throat. “Soos is the repair guy and I’m the cashier. I only work during holidays though. Stan basically runs everything else.”

“Ah. Well, dinner will be ready in five.” Helen walked back into the kitchen.

“Mum?” Dipper asked. Helen stuck her head through the door. “Can we watch a movie? Like, whilst we’re having dinner.” He knew it was a long shot. He suspected that his mum would try to use Soos’ rather big mouth to try figure out what happened in Gravity Falls. If he could keep his parents away from Wendy and Soos, he could keep his secret. Helen sighed.

“Okay.”

“Woohoo!” Wendy said. “High five!”

“Get to the chopper!” Came the shout from the movie.

“That line always makes me laugh.” Dipper said. “And I mean always.”

“Yeah, yeah dude.” Wendy replied. “He’s all like: GET TO DA CHOPPA! Why can’t he just say it normally?”

“Hahaha!” Dipper laughed. “Oh, good times.”

“So,” Helen began. “Soos.” She cleared her throat. “Eh, so… what did you get up to with the twins during the summer?” Soos began visibly sweating as he tried to think of an adventure that didn’t involve something supernatural.

“Well, there was that time we went to the arcade. Or when we played with that pinball machine. The fishing trip was fun.” Helen sighed.

“I swear to god, if I hear one more mention of that damn fishing trip, I’m going to go get a rolling pin from the kitchen and beat them to death with it.” She thought to herself. “It’s fishing, for god’s sake! How fun can it be?”

“Me and Dipper had movie night every week. Sometimes at my house and sometimes at the Shack.” Wendy said.

“Oh, Dipper!” Bob said, struggling to contain his laughter. “You didn’t tell me you were going to a girl’s house!” Dipper turned bright red.

“It wasn’t like that! I swear!” He said, although it was hard to hear anything over Wendy cackling in the background.

“Even worse, she was coming to your place too!” As impossible as it may seem, Dipper turned even redder. Helen watched the commotion.

“Oh, give me strength.” She took a deep breath. “Now now Bob, there’s no need to antagonise him. Unless it was like that.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Wendy said. “He did have a huge crush on me for most of the summer though.”

“Wendy!”

Ten minutes later, Dipper was loading plates into the dishwasher, lost in thought. “Hey.” Wendy walked up and haphazardly jammed her plate in.

“It goes like this.” Dipper said, adjusting the plate. “Mum’s a bit OCD for this thing being stacked properly. She doesn’t even let Dad do it because it just makes reorganising it harder. Apparently we all do it ‘wrong’.” Wendy laughed.

“This was nice. Your parents are nice and the band’s finally back together.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know. Everything’s going great. It feels too good to be true. I just feel like something terrible is going to happen.”

The TPAES base was under attack. “She’s here!” Lolph shouted, looking at the security screens. “She’s in the control room!” Ten time officers barged in to see a tall, slender woman wearing a black and white dress standing there. She turned around. “Aida Allen.” Dundgren said. “You are under arrest for conspiracy, breaking and entering a time base and possession of illegal weapons.”

“Oh, you mean these?” Aida said, holding up a transparent blue crystal.

“Don’t.” Dundgren commanded. “You’ll kill us all. She tucked it into her pocket. Dundgren took a threatening step towards her.

“You’d be wise to surrender.”

“On the contrary.” Aida antagonised him. Dundgren lunged at her but went right through her.

“Wh-what?” He asked, confused. “How did you do that?” Aida leaned forward.

“Science.” She began to fade away. “Bitch.” Dundgren banged his fist on the floor.

“Dammit!” He shouted. “She was a holo-projection, meant to distract us.”

“Sir!” Lolph ran in. “They’re gone.”

“What?”

“They left. We’ve taken stock and…” He sighed. “She’s stolen a time tape.”

“Oh god.” Dundgren muttered. “Get me the general on the line. Now!”

Brandt got out of the hover-car and rushed towards the mansion. He walked past ancient debris and ruins left by the recent attack on earth. Had Time-Baby not been dead, this would never had happened. Aida sat in a large, comfy looking chair awaiting his arrival. She had inherited her wealth from her parents, who were killed in said attack. “Have you acquired the asset?” She asked, hopeful. He teleported over to her and handed her the tape. “You’ve been putting your gift to good use.” She said. Brandt was one of the few remaining supernatural creatures in the world. No one knew what he was, really. Only that he could teleport certain distances, but that’s about it. “Together, we’re going to change the course of history.” Aida looked up at her henchman. “Literally.”


	4. Truth or Dare… or Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Aida’s motives are revealed and the Mystery Shack crew play a deadly game.

“Oh, yes!” Aida said with a smile on her face as she looked around the ancient ruins. “This will suit my needs quite nicely. How far away are we from the centre of the town?” She asked Brandt.

“Far enough.” He responded. “Gravity Falls is a small town. Why here and why now?”

“My dear Brandt, Gravity Falls is the centre of all supernatural occurrences on the planet. You’re ancestors most likely lived here. As for the time, Weirdmageddon has made some the creatures far more prone to violence. That makes now the perfect time to strike. In the future, humanity is doomed. But if I use these creatures to take the population down a notch, that future will never happen.” Aida walked over to a desk and placed a briefcase down on it. She opened it. Sitting inside were twelve blue crystals. “These crystals are lethal to humans. Either when touched, or when broken. That’s why I always wear gloves. But if I were to use it on something supernatural, the result would be far, far… cooler.”

“Truth or dare or don’t!” Mabel shouted, waking everyone up.

“Mabel, it’s eleven o’clock at night.” Dipper said, rubbing his eyes. He, Mabel, Wendy and Soos were sleeping in the living room. They had been up all night watching movies and telling scary stories. Helen and Bob has gone to the cinema to see a movie they thought would be ‘inappropriate’ for their children. Then again, they didn’t know that their children had seen the horrors they would watch on a screen first-hand.

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun!”

“I’ll play if we remove the ‘don’t’ part.” Wendy interjected. “That just takes the fun out of it for me.”

“Fine. Soos!” Mabel shook him. “Are you playing?”

“Yeah dog! I love truth or dare or don’t.”

“Okay, I’ll start.” Mabel pressed her fingers together in thought. “Dipper!” She pointed at him. “What was the worst part about Gravity Falls?”

“Leaving.” Dipper said immediately.

“Whoa, slow down roadrunner.” Wendy said. “That was fast.”

“It was an easy question.” Dipper sighed. “Soos.” He smirked. “What’s the biggest secret you have that we definitely don’t know?”

“Oh, uh… well I guess now’s as good a time as any. He took a deep breath. “I’m gonna propose to Melody!”

“WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!” Mabel shouted, pretending she didn’t already know.

“Yeah!”

“Alright, thanks guys.” Soos said with a smile. “Wendy, what’s your – wait! Remember that game you brought?” Wendy’s eyes lit up.

“Oh yeah!” She rifled through her bag until she pulled out a small wooden box. “So, I got this from the dollar store.”

“Isn’t everything the Gravity Falls dollar store sells cursed?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, but this has a fun curse. So it’s essentially the truth or dare, except you can’t lie or back out.”

“What happens if you do?” Mabel asked. Wendy shrugged.

“We’ve survived the apocalypse. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I don’t know guys.” Dipper said. “Remember the last time we played a magic board game? That did not go well.”

“I’m with Dipper on this one.” Soos said. “That Dungeons, Dungeons and more Dungeons real life edition sounded mega creepy.”

“But Dipper!” Mabel moaned. “It’s not a board game. Come on, please?” Dipper sighed.

“Fine.” He pushed the little red button on the top of the box. It opened up to reveal what looked to be a speaker. Arching over it were the words, ‘truth or dare or die’. “Well, that’s reassuring.”

“Are you ready to begin, Dipper?” The box said.

“Whoa!” Dipper flinched back. “It knows my name.”

“Creepy.” Mabel whispered,

“I know anything and everything about anyone who enters my vicinity. For example, I know that your real name is… Mason.” Dipper’s eyes bulged.

“This was a mistake!” He went to close the box. But as soon as he touched it, he was electrocuted. Electricity lit up his nervous system for a moment before he was flung backwards into the wall, knocking a vase over. “Ow.” He groaned, getting up.

“Dude, are you okay?” Wendy asked.

“Yeah. New plan; don’t do that.” Dipper said.

“You want to escape? Finish the game.” The speaker said.

“I think I’ll call you Daryl.” Mabel said. “You know, because it sounds kinda like dare?”

“I am offended by your statement.” Daryl replied.

“Sheesh, someone’s sensitive.” Wendy scoffed. She personally didn’t get why people were so easily offended these days. “We live in a post joke world, don’t we?”

“Shut it Wendy Corduroy!”

“Why did you call me by my full name?”

“It’s the rules. I don’t know why.” Daryl said. “Now, to begin! Youngest first.” A little arrow popped up out of the box and slowly spinner around until it was pointing at Dipper. “Mason Pines.”

“Just say Dipper.”

“No. Like I said, those are the rules. Anyway, truth or dare… or die?” Dipper thought long and hard about what he was going to choose. Obviously die was off the table, but dare had it problems too. For all he knew, the box could command him to try bring Bill back from the dead.

“Truth.”

“Good choice, Mason Pines.” Daryl began. “What’s your…” Dipper nervously picked his nails “Favourite colour? He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Blue.” He looked at the box. Just sitting there. It looked so innocent.

“LIES!” Daryl shouted. “You will pay for your deceit!” Dipper started floating up from the floor. Then he felt a pressure against his neck. Struggling against the invisible force crushing his windpipe, he muttered something incoherent. “What was that?”

“Beige.” He fell to the floor, coughing and spluttering. “Ow.”

“Dude, why did you lie?” Wendy asked.

“It was for science! So I could see what would happen!”

“Mabel Pines!” Daryl shouted. “You’re next. Truth or dare or die?

“Dare!” Mabel replied. Dipper silently face-palmed.

“I dare you to tell your biggest secret.”

“What? That’s just truth but worded differently.” Dipper said.

“It’s still a dare.” Daryl said in a mocking tone.

“My biggest secret is… everything that happened in Gravity Falls.”

“LIES! Everyone here knows.”

“To be fair, you never specified who couldn’t know.” Wendy interjected.

“Dammit.” Daryl realised. “You’re right. You might think you’re smart Mabel Pines, but I’ll break you. One day.”

“Wait, how long does this go on for?” Soos asked.

“One round.”

“Yes! Soos!”

“Wendy Corduroy! Truth or dare or-”

“Don’t bother saying die. No one’s ever going to choose that. Dare.”

“I dare you to… ask out your crush.”

“Okay.” Wendy did nothing.

“Are you going to do it or what?” Daryl said, somewhat uncomfortable. He hated awkward social situations.

“I don’t have a crush.”

“Everyone has a crush.” Daryl was getting frustrated. This bunch were the most awkward people he had ever met.

“Not when you, your friends and family are too focused on dealing with PTSD you don’t.”

“Soos Ramirez! Truth or dare or die?” Daryl just chose to move on. “I like this job, I like this job.” He thought to himself.

“Dare.”

“Bring Cipher back from the dead.”

“What? No!” Soos took a step backwards. “Never!”

“Then it’s death!” Daryl shouted. Soos took a deep breath.

“Okay dudes, this is it. Tell Melody I love her.”

“What?”

“No!”

“Soos!”

“Impressive.” Daryl said.

“Huh?” Dipper looked at the box.

“Most impressive.”

“Wait, you’re not gonna kill me?”

“No, of course not. What do you think I am, a savage?” Daryl snapped, slightly offended. To be honest, he always enjoyed this part. “It was a test. One that you have all passed. Your reward is… escaping with your lives.” The box snapped shut.

“So that happened.” Wendy said.

“So what are we gonna do with this thing?” Mabel asked.

“We should take it to the mayor’s vault. It was specifically designed after Weirdmageddon to hold dangerous magical objects such as Bill’s statue.” Wendy told them. Dipper shuddered when he remembered it. During the week following Weirdmageddon, he had spent god knows how many hours just sitting there and venting his frustrations at it. He had been hesitant to help Wendy vandalise it at first, but caved shortly after. To be honest, it felt good. It was like one last ‘fuck you’ to the creature that caused him, his friends and family so much pain.

“Good idea.” Dipper said as he picked up the broken pieces of vase. As he was walking over to the bin, he felt a sensation he hadn’t felt since Weirdmageddon. The sensation of being watched. He turned around. He thought he heard a rustle in the bushes, but thought nothing of it.

Aida stood in the control room. She looked on into the testing chamber at the creature in there. It was an abomination; it had what looked to be eight different bear heads and god knows how many legs. It introduced itself as the Multi-Bear. He seemed rather nice, she felt bad for him. But, you can’t save the world without sacrifice. “Ready the crystal.” She said. One of her goons gently opened the briefcase and removed the dangerous rock using a pair of pliers. “Be careful, it’s the rarest substance on Earth.” The henchman walked into the chamber and shut the door behind him. Suddenly, he tripped. The crystal fell to the floor and shattered. A rancid blue gas spilled across the room. The henchman gasped as he began turning to stone. He screamed in pain, but was cut off by his mouth freezing over. The statue then promptly collapsed in on itself. The Multi-Bear backed away from the gas, but there was nowhere he could go. The gas reached him, but instead of turning him to stone, he paused. All of his eyes glowed blue and his friendly growl turned into one of pure rage and aggression. The feral beast lunged at the two-way mirror, but failed to get through. Aida smiled. It had worked.


	5. Upgrades People, Upgrades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lance does some research, Dipper gets a very special pair of glasses and Wendy and Soos have to go.

Lance sat at his computer thinking. Thinking about how different his friend seemed. He decided to do some research. He looked up, ‘Gravity Falls News’. He scrolled all the way to the start of the summer. The first headline read, ‘Li’l Gideon’s Li’l Girlfriend.’ There was a picture of a small child with tall white hair wearing a suit and holding Mabel’s hand. “That’s her.” He thought to himself. She looked very uncomfortable. He scrolled down some more. ‘Local Child Psychic Gideon Gleeful Takes Ownership of Mystery Shack.’ Then, ‘Stanford Pines Exposes Gideon Gleeful as Fraud.’ “That must be their great-uncle.” The next one confused him to no end, ‘Local Mystery Solver Catches Vampire Bat.’ He looked at Dipper. He was hanging off the edge of a water tower and pointing a taser at a huge bat. Two very scared looking police officers stood behind him. Lance clicked on a video. It was a recording of a news report.

“Good morning Gravity Falls.” The reporter said. “It’s another beautiful day. But every day is beautiful now that the… unpleasantness is over.” Lance turned the video off. The unpleasantness? What the heck did that mean?

“Bye Wendy.” Dipper said, hugging her. They had stayed at the Pines household for 5 days, but now they had to go home. The October break was over.

“I’ll miss you too.”

“Well,” Helen said, walking up. She had been unable to extract any information from the guests. This had only strengthened her desire to find out more. “It’s been nice having you. Have a good trip.”

“Thanks Mrs. Pines.” Wendy walked off smiling.

“Bye!” Soos shouted as the two of them got into the car. Dipper waved at them from the doorway. He squinted. He’d been having trouble seeing things lately, especially out of his left eye. It was probably a side effect of being possessed by a one eyed dorito demon. He sighed as the car drove off into the distance, out of sight. Walking back into the house, he filled the kettle and began to make a coffee practically strong enough to raise the dead. As he put some sugar into the cup, he was lost in thought. He always was these days.

“Dipper?” He jumped, spilling some scalding hot water onto his hand. Quickly, he dunked it in the sink. Turning around, he saw Bob standing there.

“Oh, hi Dad.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dipper said. He’d had quite a few burns in his time.

“Good. Anyway, you better finish that quick. You’re going to the opticians in half an hour.”

“Hm?” Dipper said, vaguely remembering his mum mentioning that at some point or the other in the last few days. “Oh yeah, mum mentioned that. I think. Probably.”

“Right. Well, be ready.” Bob walked off. Dipper sat down and sighed. He lifted the coffee to his mouth and took a sip.

“Ah! Too hot.” He placed it back on the table. He missed Gravity Falls. When Wendy and Soos came it almost felt like he was back home again. Piedmont wasn’t his home anymore. Gravity Falls was. Now they were gone and he just felt… empty. Like a piece of his soul had been torn out and stepped on right in front of him.

“Hi Pacifica!” Mabel said into her phone.

“Hi.”

“How are you?”

“Ugh.” Pacifca said. “We can only afford two butlers now. It’s a nightmare.”

“You don’t need butlers! We don’t have any and we’re doing fine.”

“That’s just because you’re used to it.” The truth was, Pacifca used to find her butlers rather annoying. “Mabel, can I ask you something?”

“Anytime!”

“Do you ever get…” She paused as if it took supreme effort just to say it. “Nightmares? About Bill?” Mabel sighed.

“Yeah. All the time. Dipper has them more than I do though. I think he just has worse experiences involving Bill in general.”

“Like, worse than Weirdmageddon?”

“Yeah. The first time we met him he invaded Grunkle Stan’s mind. That wasn’t too bad to be honest. Then Bill possessed Dipper a week or two later.”

“Oh.” Pacifica said, slightly miffed that Dipper never told her about that. “He never told me about that.”

“He doesn’t like talking about it. I’m pretty sure that scared him more than Weirdmageddon did. Did he tell you that he spent three days in the apocalypse being actively hunted?”

“And I thought hanging out at that hovel was bad.”

“He spent all that time looking for me and when he did, he discovered I’d replaced him with some cheap clone.”

“That was kind of a dick move, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. I was kinda selfish the whole summer to be honest. But, I’m working on it.” Mabel sighed.

“Yeah, me too. My parents just pretend that Bill never happened. Like we didn’t lose all our money to an evil demonic nacho.”

“Our parents don’t know about any of the weirdness.”

“You’ve not told them?” Pacifca was shocked. She knew Dipper as a very logical person. She had honestly thought that he would have told them. “Really? I could get you not telling them, but Dipper?”

“We were going to!” Mabel replied. “But then we realised they might not let us go back to Gravity Falls. We didn’t want to risk it.”

“Well, I guess you’re going to have to keep your secret. I need you guys to come back.”

“Is it maybe because you have a teeny-weeny tiny… huge crush on Dipper?”

“W-what?” Pacifca said, flabbergasted. “No I don’t!”

“Yeah, you do!”

“Mabel.”

“Pacifica and Dipper sitting in a tree.”

“Mabel.” Pacifca was growing more embarrassed by the second.

“K-i-s-s-i-n-g!”

“I’m hanging up. Bye.”

“Oh, okay. Bye Pacifica!” She heard the phone go silent. She walked over to the poster on her wall and pulled it off, revealing her scrapbook. Sitting down on her bed, she opened it. She remembered all the things that happened over the summer. Suddenly, she heard the rumble of a car arriving in the driveway. Walking over to the window, she saw Dipper and their father getting out the car. Had she really been looking at her scrapbook for that long?

“Mabel?” Dipper said, knocking on the door.

“Yeah?” Mabel replied.

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah.” Dipper walked into the room wearing a pair of glasses that looked similar to Ford’s.

“Whoa!” Mabel said, running over to him. “You look like Grunkle Stan!”

“I know!” Dipper replied. “I also got this spare pair as well.”

“What does it look like? Can you see into my soul?”

“…no? I never realised how bad my eyesight was, it’s like going from 360p to 1080!” Just then, Dipper’s phone pinged.

“I don’t know what that means, but okay.” Mabel said as Dipper walked out of the room. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the text. It was from Ford.

Hello Dipper. Me and Stanley are back in Gravity Falls until the end of the year. We’ve enjoyed treasure hunting, but we needed to take a break. Never have too much of a good thing, as the saying goes.

Hi Great-Uncle Ford. It’s good that you’re back in Gravity Falls. We played a cursed game of truth or dare with Soos and Wendy, so that was fun. They left earlier today. In other news, I got glasses and they’re already smudged. Dipper pulled the glasses off his face and wiped them on his shirt.

I hope nobody got hurt in truth or dare. As for the glasses, I can give you a few tips. 1) Phantom Smudges. They are one of the few mysteries I never solved. Just make sure not to wear nylon shirts, you can’t clean the glasses on them. 2) Put them in your pocket if it’s raining. And 3) Be aware that they will fog up if it’s cold and you go into someplace warm. Do you have a spare pair?

Thanks for the tips. Dipper responded. I do have a spare pair. What do you need them for?

You’re welcome. I’ve had this idea for a while now. If you mail me the spare pair, I’ll get them back to you in about two weeks.

What are you going to do with them?

I want to surprise you. Trust me, it’s awesome.

Okay, I’ll take your word for it.

:) Ford texted back a smiley face. Dipper had a few theories on what Ford could do with the glasses, but he did like surprises. He decided just to do as he was told.

2 weeks later, Dipper received a letter from Gravity Falls. Excitedly he ran down the stairs and picked up the package. Then he pulled out a completely normal pair of glasses. Running up to his room and locking the door, he put them on. Nothing happened. He looked in the envelope. There was a post-it note. It said, ‘tap the right side.’ Dipper tapped it. Suddenly, various assorted screens appeared in his vision. “Whoa!” He said, realising what they were.

“Hello Dipper.” Ford said.

“What? How can I hear you?”

“The glasses, Dipper.”

“Oh my god.” Dipper stammered. “This is so cool!”

“They record everything you see and hear. You can access these recordings through the cable jack in the right leg. You can also run facial recognition, make calls. Normal glasses stuff. I hacked so many databases for these things! You could find anyone. I was going to make some for Stanley, but he didn’t want them, so I just made myself a pair instead.

“Great-Uncle Ford, this is amazing! They’re like spy glasses!”

“I’m glad to hear you like them. I have to go stop Stanley from using our discoveries as tourist attractions.” Dipper pulled the glasses off.

“This is the greatest day in the history of ever.” He thought to himself. He ran into Mabel’s room. “Mabel! These! At! Look!” He shoved the glasses onto Mabel’s face.

“Whoa!” She said, putting her pen down. “Spy glasses! Did Grunkle Ford make them?”

“Y-yeah!” Dipper stumbled over his words in excitement. “This is so awesome.”

Lance looked at the Word document he had labelled, ‘Gravity Falls.’ It had links to multiple articles. In one, their Great-Uncle’s name was Stanford. In another, it was Stanley. His name seemed interchangeable depending on which article you read. Then there was the small, minor detail that no one could contact Gravity Falls for a week last summer and there was no information on it. What was the unpleasantness? Why was Dipper fighting a huge bat? Who is Gideon Gleeful? Why were there more people with PTSD there than anywhere else in the world? Who was this Bill guy he heard about occasionally? Why did it all have to be so bloody mysterious? He’d started this to figure out what happened, but he’d stumbled along an even bigger mystery. This was 100% a conspiracy. And he knew the two people that seemed to pop up in every article from the last summer.


	6. Closure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dipper finds a small amount of closure and Aida completes the final steps of her plan.

Dipper sat in trigonometry, tense. He looked over at Mabel. She was sitting, ready to pounce at any moment. He looked down at his paper and finished the working. Walking over to the teacher’s desk, he placed it down on the pile of papers. Mrs. Roberts picked it up and looked at it. All the working was there, but all the triangles were scribbled out. She looked at Dipper, feeling pity for him. He looked terrified. She leaned in closer. “You and your sister can leave early.” She said, given that there was only five minutes left and she knew that the twins were both uncomfortable in her class.

“T-thanks M-Miss.” Dipper walked back to his desk and shoved his books in his bag. Quickly, he relayed the information to Mabel and walked out of the room. Mabel walked out a minute later. They sat next to each other on the floor for what seemed like an eternity. The bell rung, startling them. They went their separate ways when they entered the lunch hall. Mabel went to sit next to her friends and Dipper sat down at an empty table. Pulling his journal out, he began writing. He was barely aware of someone sitting down in front of him.

“You can’t possibly be Dipper Pines.”

William Rider sat in his art class absentmindedly sketching a rather intricate looking building in his notebook. It was his second class of the day and it was almost over. He loved art and he had always been good at it, ever since he was a kid he could always draw better than anyone else he knew. He tried to be modest, but he was amazing at art. It was just a fact of life for anyone that knew him that he was an amazing artist.

“Can William Rider please report to the office. Can William Rider please report to the office. Thank you.” Will was confused. The last time he had been called to the office was when he got into a fight because someone stole his notebook. Getting up, he walked out of the room.

Principal Campbell sat at his desk waiting. He heard a knock at the door. “Come in.” He said. A student with blond hair wearing a black jumper walked in. “Hello Will.”

“Hello, uh, Mr. Campbell.”

“Sit down.” It was just then that Will noticed a girl sitting in front of the desk. “Will, this is Emma. She’s just moved here from… New York, was it?” Emma nodded. “Yeah. Well, I need you to show her around. You’re a model student, so I thought you’d be the best for the job.” Truthfully, there was only one other person in Emma’s age group that he would consider to do it, but recently there had been rumours surrounding the student. Not very nice ones either, stuff about joining cults and having dealings with the illuminati and all that conspiracy junk. They were doing better than ever in their classes, but several of the student’s teachers had mentioned the kid seeming a bit off recently and Mr. Campbell had decided that if he was overly stressed, shoving a new responsibility on him probably wasn’t the best idea. “You’ve only got about five minutes until break, so start early. Show her the ropes, will you?”

“Okay.” Will nodded.

“Dismissed.” The two students walked out of the room.

“So, your name’s Will?” Emma said as they walked down the corridor.

“Yeah, but everyone calls me Bill. Emma, right?”

“Yeah.” Emma smiled. “So, what’s this school like? Any people I should look out for? Any hot guys?”

“Well, first off: it’s shit. It’s school, what do you expect? And I couldn’t tell you if any of the guys in this school are hot or not. As for people you should look out for, there’s not many anymore. Don’t buy anything from Cody York, he’s a scammer. Don’t insult the football players and-”

“You said there’s not many people you should look out for anymore. Did the teachers clamp down on bullying or something?”

“No. Well, the teachers didn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“There were two kids.” Bill said. “Twins. My year. They were pretty normal. Called Dipper and Mabel Pines. Dipper was the kind of quiet nerd who got picked on a bunch. Mabel was pretty popular. Then they went to some backwater town in Oregon for the summer and when they came back, they were different. Like they’d looked death in the eye and lived to tell the tale. All the bullies just kind of just got shut down by their very presence.”

“That’s… odd.” Emma replied. She loved a good mystery. “What happened during their summer?”

“No one knows. Some people think they joined a cult. Others think they got kidnapped by terrorists.” He spent about five minutes relaying lots of rumours about the Pines twins to Emma. “Some people think Dipper has a cybernetic hand, like out of Star Wars. That on’s pretty far fetched though.”

“They all are.” Emma muttered as the bell rung.

“Come on, that’s break.” Bill said as he led Emma to the lunch queue. “I’m gonna take a piss, okay? You get a snack, or something.”

“Okay.” Bill started walking away. “Wait. Do you know where I can find the Pines?” He looked at her incredulously.

“You want to talk to them?”

“Well, I just want to know what they’re like. Why I should avoid them.” Bill sighed. He pointed to a boy in a navy blue vest and a red shirt wearing a lumberjack cap sitting alone at a table. He was writing in a dark blue book that had a silver pine tree in the centre.

“That’s Dipper. Be careful.”

“Thanks.” Emma walked over to the boy and sat down in front of him. “You can’t possibly be Dipper Pines.” She said. The boy lowered his book and looked at her. He had huge bags under his eyes and looked like he was on his third cup of coffee. Then she noticed the way his hands jittered and the flask on the desk next to him and realised that he probably was.

“Why not?” He asked. He had a surprisingly deep voice for a thirteen year-old. 

“I was expecting someone with your reputation to be…” She searched for the right word. “Uglier.”

Dipper looked at the girl in front of him. Is she flirting with me? I think she is. And was that a pick up line? I think she’s the first girl to ever think I’m hot. With possible exception of Pacifica. She was really bad at hiding that crush she had on me. God, was I that bad with Wendy? I hope not.

“I’ve heard the rumours and you don’t seem like the type of person they’d be attached to. Plus, they can’t all be true.”

Maybe if I cross my legs, nobody will notice. Dipper thought. “Some of them are.”

“Which ones?” Emma said, leaning forward. She wanted to unravel this mystery.

“It depends on whatever ones you hear.” Emma caught a glimpse of his book. It looked like a drawing of some sort of ghost.

“What’s that?” Without missing a beat, Dipper slammed it shut.

“None of your business.” Emma smiled. That book definitely had answers.

“Someone’s secretive. How about you tell me your secret and I’ll tell you mine.” She said, keeping a cool façade despite the fact that she was desperately racking her brain for a juicy secret she could tell him. Dipper laughed.

“Even if I wanted to tell you, which I don’t, you’d never believe me.”

“So you’re going to be like that, huh?” Dipper watched her. She was very perceptive and obviously wanted to know what happened in Gravity Falls. Suddenly, a boy with blond hair walked up to the table.

“Emma, break’s nearly over.” He said.

“I’m sorry, you are?”

“Bill Rider.” He reached out to shake Dipper’s hand. Dipper jolted upright so quickly his chair fell over backwards. He looked absolutely petrified. Like he’d just seen a ghost. “Are you okay?” Bill asked him, worried.

“G-g-et-t aw-way f-fr-rom m-me.” Dipper said, taking a step backwards. “Y-you m-mon-nst-ter-r.”

“Look, I’ll go.” Bill picked up the journal. “Here.” He held it out. Dipper lunged forward and grabbed it. “Whoa!” Bill said, slightly offended. “Rude.”

“You’re one t-to t-talk.” Dipper muttered. Get out! It’s not safe. He can’t be Bill, he’s dead. What if he’s not? Maybe I should kill him just to be sure. Oh, shut up! You’re just being paranoid. Bill is a pretty common name, the chances of him being Bill are… low, to say the least. He’s magic! Anything is possible. I need to get out of here!

Emma looked at the boy standing in front of her. He was muttering to himself, almost as if he was talking to someone. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Can’t trust people called Bill.” Dipper said under his breath. “Trust no one. Trust no one. Trust no one.” He backed away and ran off.

“Well, that was… odd.” Bill said.

Dipper staggered out of the lunch hall gasping for air. Struggling to stay on his feet, he burst through the hallway doors and collapsed onto the floor. The few people standing there looked at him strangely. He pulled his phone out his pocket and called Mabel.

“Hello?”

“M-Mabel!”

“Dipper?” She could tell by how he spoke that something was wrong. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m outside the lunch hall.” Dipper said, his voice barley audible.

“Alright, I’m coming.” About ten seconds later, Mabel rushed into the hallway. “Oh my gosh. Are you okay?” Dipper mumbled something incoherent in response. She looked at the people standing in the hall, who were already beginning to file out. “Can you all leave? Can’t you see this is a sensitive situation?” She turned to her twin. “What happened? I haven’t seen you like this since…” She stopped talking, not wanting to make things worse. The last time he’d reacted this badly to a trigger was the night after he got possessed by Bill. Dipper continued mumbling complete nonsense. Mabel hugged him. “Come on, you’re alright. He’s dead. Just tell me what happened.”

“T-there was a-a g-uy. I th-think it was B-… him.” Dipper proceded to tell her everything.

“It wasn’t Bill. He’s dead, remember? Plus, that guy was in my art class last year. He can’t be Bill.” Dipper gave his sister a small but sincere smile.

“Th-thanks.” He said as the bell rang in the background.

“Are you sure you’re okay to go to class?” Dipper nodded slowly. “Okay.” Mabel looked him. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault.” “Be careful.” She walked away as Dipper wiped tears from his eyes.Bill was dead. He watched him die. But what if he wasn’t? Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in his head. Quickly, he pulled his phone out.

“Heya Dipper!” Soos said.

“Soos, I need you to do something for me.”

“Eh, okay. What is it?”

“I need you to go into the woods and find Bill’s statue.”

“Why?” Soos asked.

“I just need to know it’s still there.”

“Okay. I’ll call

Ford was sitting on the couch on the couch on the Mystery Shack’s front porch. He wondered how he could have even considered destroying it. It was charming, in an odd kind of way. Suddenly, his phone rang. “Hello?”

“Great-Uncle Ford?” Dipper shouted in a panicked tone.

“Dipper? Are you okay?”

“I need you to find the Bill statue.”

“What? Why?”

“Please, I just… please.” Ford could hear the pleading tone in his voice, so he caved.

“Alright. I’m going there now. How about you tell me what happened?” As Ford approached the clearing where Bill’s statue lay, he wished he could be there to comfort Dipper. Tell him that everything would be alright. He sighed. Dipper deserved that after everything he’d been through. “It sounds like you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time Dipper.” He said after he had the whole story. “It’s okay, it was just a coincidence. I can see the statue. It’s still there.”

“Put it on video.” Dipper said. He couldn’t just take Ford’s word for it.

“There.” Dipper pulled the phone away from his ear, but closed his eyes.

“Show me you’re not possessed.” The camera panned over to Ford’s face. He removed his glasses.

“It’s me Dipper. It’s alright, you’re fine.” He turned the camera back towards the statue. Dipper had only ever seen it for a short moment in the Fearamid. He’d never been able to work up the courage to go face his fears. He’d only ever been told about it. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

“Thank you.” He murmured.

“That’s okay Dipper.” Ford thought for a moment. “On second thought, shouldn’t you be getting to class?”

“Yeah. Probably. Bye.” Sighing, he hung up. Pulling himself up from the floor, he began walking to his Science class. At least he didn’t have trigonometry next.

Aida looked at the man on the operating table. She had been informed that he was a brilliant assassin, so capturing two children shouldn’t be too hard. He didn’t even need to capture them. If he did, they’d escape and try stop her, leading her to Ford. If he failed, she would kill him before he could talk and the Pines twins would be right on their way here. There was a reason to sending the assassin on the day Christmas break started. Being from a future where the Pines family were renowned for saving the multiverse, she knew all about them. She knew they’d try to stop her and she knew she could use them to get to Stanford. She turned her focus back to the assassin and watched as his eye was pulled out. Shuddering, she turned away. She could handle most types of gore, but she couldn’t stand eyes. They creeped her out for some weird, indiscernible reason. Back at the operating table, the surgeon placed a cybernetic eye into the assassin’s eye socket. It would function as two things: a camera, so Aida could see what was going on and a kill switch, just in case he was about to talk. She smiled. It was all coming together.


	7. The End of the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aida makes her move.

“Kids!” Helen shouted. “You’re gonna miss the bus!”

“I know, I know.” Dipper said as he ran down the stairs shoving a book into his backpack. “Mabel? Hurry up!”

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Mabel exclaimed from her room. Dipper shook his head in exasperation. About a minute later, Mabel came bounding down to the bottom floor. “I’m ready!”

“Yeah.” Dipper replied. “I can see that.”

“Right, you two need to go.” Helen said as she guided them to the front door. “Run, or you’ll miss the bus.” She looked at them as they walked away. She hadn’t been expecting twins and when she found out she didn’t think she would be able to cope, but she couldn’t imagine her life without either of them and it pained her to know that something bad had happened. Obviously she couldn’t know for sure, but it was pretty obvious. “I love you.” She shouted as she shut the door. Walking over to the table, she sat down and sighed. Stan might know. But last time I talked to him he just avoided the question. Maybe I should give it one more try. Walking over to the phone, she dialled Stan’s number.

“Ugh, hello?” Came a gravelly voice from the other end. “Who is this?”

“It’s Helen. I need to talk to Stanford.”

“Yeah, okay. Ford’s just – I’m Stanford. Yeah. Hm”

“I have two things I need to talk to you about.”

“‘Kay.”

“Firstly, couldn’t you have given us a warning about Waddles?” She said, looking over at the sleeping pig behind her.

“It was a spur of the moment decision! You gotta let Mabel keep him. If not for her, Soos really can’t take care of him.”

“I’m not going to give him away. She loves him.”

“Then why’re you talking about it?” This gave Helen pause.

“Honestly, just to complain for the sake of it because ever since the twins got back from Gravity Falls, something’s been wrong with them. I don’t know what, but I think you do.”

“Look, you’re being paranoid. Huh. Maybe that’s where Dipper get’s it from.” Stan said, knowing that the main reason was being possessed by an evil nacho intent on destroying the world.

“Stan, if nothing happened then they wouldn’t be having those nightmares. Every. Night. Waking up screaming and bawling. It also doesn’t explain the irrational fear of triangles and the colour yellow. Or their aversion to handshakes.”

“They’ve been havin’ nightmares? That one’s new to me.”

You’re getting nowhere with this. She thought. “Look Stan, I need to go.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.” She said, hanging up. She looked at the clock. I’m off work today. I could properly search their rooms under the guise of having a ‘deep clean.’ Yeah, that could work. Walking up to Dipper’s room, she looked through all his desk drawers. Under his mattress and in his pillowcase.

“Honey?” Bob shouted from downstairs. “Can you keep it down? I’m on a call.”

“Sorry!” Helen replied. “Didn’t realise I was making such a racket.” She sighed. Nothing. Not one thing that could prove that something happened in Gravity Falls. She paced around the room in frustration, then noticed something on the floor. Picking it up, she realised that it was a bit of plaster from the wall. But why would – behind the bookcase! Of course, that’s it! Standing back up, she removed all the books and put them on the floor. There was a hole in the wall. Yes! She thought. She reached in and started removing stuff out of the hole. Laying them on the desk, she looked at them. There was a weird looking torch, some feathers, a couple of test tubes labelled ‘invisible ink’ and a black light. He couldn’t have a diary explaining everything that happened, could he? Or a journal. But no, that’s be too easy and not mysterious enough for him. She picked up the black light. Dipper must have it for a reason. But what would he write on? Walking over to the door, she closed it and turned off the lights. Shutting the curtains, she turned the black light on. “Holy shit.”

“Yes, I know it’s not working. I’m trying to get it working. But you won’t let me! No, you’re not being helpful. You’re being annoying!” Bob shouted at the man on the other end of the phone. He’d been on these calls all day and it was beginning to wear on him. “And for the last time, I KNOW! Oh, you have to go? Goodbye! He said as the line went dead. “Dickhead.”

“Ehhhhh, Bob?” Helen shouted from upstairs.

“Yeah?”

“I need you to cone up here now.”

“Is the house on fire?”

“No.”

“Are you on fire?”

“No.”

“Can it wait?!”

“Just come up here!”

“Fine.” Bob sighed. “This better be good or – holy shit! What the hell?!” He said as he walked into the dark room. There were drawings and writings covering every bit of the room. There was a circle of strange symbols with what looked to be the eye of providence in the middle. One of the symbols was circled, with the words, ‘Why me?’ Written next to it. Upon closer inspection, the circled symbol was a pine tree. The room was also covered in various writing such as, ‘Can’t sleep’ written over and over again. ‘Why did I trust him?’ ‘They’re only getting worse.’ ‘It was all my fault.’ ‘When Gravity Falls and Earth become sky, fear the beast with just one eye.’ ‘I feel like I’m being watched.’ ‘He’s dead. Bill’s dead. ‘What if he’s not?’ ‘Trust no one.’ ‘I can’t unsee it!’ ‘Sixty degrees that come in threes.’ The Pines parents looked at each other. “Well,” Bob said. “There’s proof if I’ve ever seen it.”

“Yep. I’m glad I kept-” She was cut off by an electrical sensation running up her body. Turning around, Bob saw a man with short black hair wearing an eyepatch over his left eye standing behind him and holding a gun that wouldn’t look out of place in Star Wars.

“What the-” Bob was cut off when the gun fired again. He feel to the floor, unconscious.

“Hey.” Bill looked up from his drawing and saw a girl with long brown hair wearing a purple sweater standing in front of him.

“Oh, hi. Do I know you?” She did look vaguely familiar.

“My name is Mabel Pines. I was in your art class last year.”

“That’s it. There’s where I remember you from.”

“Actually, I think you might recognise me for another reason.”

“…okay?”

“Did you have an encounter with my brother two days ago?”

“Is your brother the one with the lumberjack hat?” Bill asked, pretty sure there was no one else in the school that wore anything like it.

“Yeah.” Mabel said as she sat down.

“I… I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“Does he have…” He searched for the right word. “Issues?”

“No. But… someone called Bill hurt him. He doesn’t like people talking about it. So, don’t tell anyone.”

“Oh. That makes sense, actually. Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault your parents named you Bill.” Mabel smiled. “Trust me, I know about blaming yourself for things. Can you just… try keep your distance from him please?”

Bill shrugged. “I’ve been doing that anyway.”

“Thank you.” Mabel got up to leave.

“Can you tell him I hope he gets better?”

“I will.”

Helen opened her eyes slowly. She tried to get up, but couldn’t. Looking down, she realised she was tied to a chair. Great. She thought. I think I’m in the… kitchen? Yeah, yeah. Where’s Bob? Looking to her right, she found what she was looking for. There. What happened? Think, Helen, think! Right, I was in Dipper’s room looking at the weird writing on the wall with Bob and then… I got electrocuted? I think? Ah, fuck it. I don’t even know anymore. I shouldn’t be getting caught up in things like this! I’m not due for a mid-life crisis for about five years! Suddenly, a man walked in front of her.

“Ah, you’re awake.” The man had a slight Australian accent.

“Who are and what do you want?” Helen said, trying her best to sound intimidating but failing miserably.

“I cannot tell you my name. And I don’t want anything from you. My client, however, does.”

“Okay, then tell me what they want. Also, I’m gonna call you Crocodile Dundee from now on, got that?”

Dundee humphed. “They want your children.”

“If hurt them, I swear it will be the end of you!”

“Pathetic. Have you got any action-movie one liners to go along with the death threats?”

“We’re in the kitchen.” Helen said. “And I’m a great cook so if you’re hungry, how about you let me out of this chair and I’ll give you a taste!”

“That was a good one. Now we just need to wait for your kids to get home.” The assassin pushed a rag into both Pines parents’ mouths. “Then, maybe the Pines twins can live up to their name and burn to the ground, just like a real pine tree.”


	8. Turn, Turn, Turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Mabel find a lead on Aida.

Dipper was sitting at his usual lunch table, holding his glasses up to the lights to find the smudge. Bringing them down to his shirt, he wiped them on it then held them up to the light again. They were smudge free. Mostly.

“Heya Dip-Dop!” Mabel exclaimed as she sat down next to him.

“Hi.”

“So, I talked to Bill.” Dipper visibly paled. “No!” Mabel backtracked. “He didn’t threaten me or anything. I just told him that it wasn’t his fault and to try keep his distance from you. He said he understood completely.”

“He wasn’t there. He’ll never understand.”

“Well, hopefully you won’t have any more run-ins with him. I know how much that shook you up.” Dipper forced a smile onto his face.

“Thanks Mabel.”

“I’m gonna go chat with Rachel. Will you be okay?”

“I’ll be fine. I don’t need you hovering over my shoulder. I get enough of that from Mum.”

“Okay.” Mabel said as she walked away. Dipper pulled his journal out and started writing. Suddenly, he heard a shout.

“Nerd!” Then there was the noise of someone falling to the floor.

“Leave me alone!” Another voice shouted, presumably the person who was shoved. Curious, Dipper closed the journal and got up. Turning the corner, he saw a boy with dark brown hair getting up off the floor. He was short; even shorter than Dipper. He was shoving books that had spilled out onto the floor back into his backpack. The person who shoved him was someone who used to bully Dipper: Trevor.

“Hey!” Dipper shouted. Everyone turned to look at him. Some people started to look uncomfortable and shuffled away due to his general presence. “How about you leave him alone. Or else.” Most people would use this opportunity to apologise and take the get-out-of-jail-free card. Trevor however, was not so canny.

“Huh. Am I supposed to say or else what?” He started walking towards Dipper. “Am I supposed to be intimidated by some wimp who cowered at my feet earlier this year? By some wimp who doesn’t even know bracelets are for girls?” He pointed to the leather bands wrapping round Dipper’s wrists. Their insides were actually lined with unicorn hair, to ease his paranoia. “I mean, come on! This kid writes for fun. I wonder what’s even in it?” Then Trevor made a fatal mistake. He grabbed for the journal. Catching Dipper in one of the rare moments he let his guard down, he opened the book. Some people say the journal contains things no mortal could possibly comprehend and that’s what the twins saw over the summer. Others say it was blank. But what ever Trevor saw, it shook him to his core. The other thing that shook him was the left hook that landed on his face a split second later. Trevor fell to the floor and started backing away. “Take it! Take your fucking demon book!” Dipper reached out and pulled the book from his hands then quickly kicked his foot out into Trevor’s crotch.

“Maybe that’ll teach you not to take my journal.” Dipper said as he walked away. “Dickhead.”

“So, I heard you got into a fight in school.” Mabel said as they walked towards their house. Dipper getting into fights was rare. He usually won them these days, but they were rare nonetheless.

“Yeah, some asshole tried to steal my journal.” Dipper replied. “I ended that one quickly.”

“Did you get in trouble?”

“I bribed him.”

“You bribed the principal?”

“Yeah.” Dipper laughed. “I think the fact that it was the last day before the holidays helped. I don’t think he wanted to deal with me.”

“Well, Grunkle Stan taught us well.” Mabel reached forward to open the door.

“I’m so glad we didn’t go to – WATCH OUT!” Dipper lunged at his sister as they entered the house. He heard a shot of a laser gun go off and some muffled screams.

“What the hell?” Mabel shouted. Dipper looked around for a weapon. That’ll do. He thought, picking up a frying pan.

“Come out!” Their assailant shouted.

Jesus. Dipper thought. He sounds like Crocodile Dundee. That’s what I’m gonna call him. Quickly whipping round the corner, he threw the pan at Dundee.

“Come – arrgghh!” He was cut off when he was hit in the face with a frying pan. He fell to the floor, unconscious. Mabel popped her head around too.

“Well.” She said. “That was easy.” They walked over and surveyed the scene. Their parents were tied up and gagged and Dundee lay strewn across the floor. Dipper picked up the gun lying on the floor.

It’s on stun. He noted. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dundee’s eyes flick open. He reacted a second too late. Bringing the gun around to shoot their assailant, he pulled the trigger but it was knocked out of his hands. The shot went harmlessly up to the ceiling. Dundee reared his fist back and struck the male Pines twin in the face. Mabel quickly jumped into action, grabbing the pan and attacking Dundee with it. He caught it before it hit him and threw it aside. Suddenly, Dipper jumped onto his back and thrust his pocketknife into his shoulder. Dundee screamed in pain. He kicked his foot out to stop an incoming Mabel and pushed himself back into the wall to try crush Dipper. Dipper jumped off just in time and stuck his leg out. Dundee tripped over it. A moment later, Mabel jumped on him and pulled the knife out of his back. Dundee jolted upright, throwing her off his back. Then he felt something cold press against the back of his head. “Move and I’ll shoot this laser right through your brain.” Dipper said, neglecting to mention that the weapon was still set to stun.

“Alright, alright, nobody needs to get hurt.” Dundee replied. Quickly, Dipper turned him around and pinned him against a wall.

“Who are you working for?!”

“Yeah!” Mabel exclaimed. “Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!”

“I-I can’t.” Dundee mumbled.

“Oh, come on. Is whatever organisation hired you really worth dying for?” Dundee sighed.

“No. No it fucking isn’t!” He looked terrified. “Look, I was hired by a woman named A – arrrrgggghhhh!”

“Oh, man up. I barely touched y-” It was as at that moment that the Dundee’s face exploded. Dipper stumbled back, dropping the gun. There was an incessant ringing in his ears that was the last thing he remembered before he blacked out.

Dipper opened his eyes slowly. His head hurt. Like it had been hit with a hammer six ways from Sunday. Sitting up, he realised he was in his bed. Pulling the covers away, he made carefully made his way downstairs. He surveyed the scene as he entered the kitchen. Dundee’s body lay on the floor, headless. The kitchen was a bit messy, but otherwise alright. Helen was pacing around the room and Bob was saying something he couldn’t quite hear.

“Oh.” Helen said. “You’re awake. Are you okay?”

“Not really.” Dipper replied. “My head hurts like hell.”

“Yeah. That tends to happen when someone’s face explodes in your immediate vicinity.”

“Ha ha, very funny. Now, where’s Mabel? I need to talk to her.”

“Aren’t you gonna explain what all that was about?” Bob said. “Maybe you could tell us about the invisible ink covering your walls. Or the secret compartment you made.” Dipper stopped in his tracks. “Or what really happened in Gravity Falls.”

“I’ll do that later.” He walked into the living room. Mabel was sitting on the couch looking concerned.

“Dipper! Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I have an idea. Bring Mum and Dad up to my room.” He said. Mabel nodded.

“You got it, Dipping-Sauce!”

“Right.” Helen said, standing in the same room she had made her discovery in hours before. “Are you going to tell us what this is all about?”

“No.” Mabel replied. “Dipper’s going to track the assassin!”

“And how are you going to do that?” Bob asked, looking at Dipper. He was on his computer waiting for an app to load up. Reaching down, he plugged a cable into it.

“With these!” He held up his glasses triumphantly.

“Is there like a hidden camera on them or something?” Bob said sarcastically.

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” A video appeared on the screen.

“WATCH OUT!” Dipper cringed at the voice crack. “There.” He pointed at the blurry image of Dundee. “I noted that the gun was on stun. He wanted to capture us, not kill us.” He skipped to the end.

“No. No it fucking isn’t! Look, I was hired by a woman named A – arrrrgggghhhh!”

“Oh, man up. I barely touched y-”

“Look at his left eye.”

“It’s glowing.” Helen noted.

“The eye killed him. That means whoever he works for went to a great deal of length to make sure he didn’t talk.”

“We need to find out who he is!” Mabel said. “Dipper, can you find his face with your spy glasses?”

“For that to work, I need a face.”

“Fingerprint?”

“I’ll try that.” Dipper ran down the stairs and pulled Dundee’s left hand to his glasses. “None.” He mumbled. Walking back up to his room, he looked at his family. “He’s got no prints. We don’t know his name and we can’t run facial recognition. I’d try track the feed of the camera but it was incinerated when his head exploded.”

“Look.” Bob said. “I’ll call the Police. Maybe they can find something.”

“No.” Dipper stopped him.

“What d’ya mean no?”

“If I can’t find him with every database on the planet I doubt they can either. The difference with us is… we have a lead.”

“What is it?” Helen questioned.

“There’s only one place in the world where people would want to take us captive.

“Where?”

“Gravity Falls.” Both of the twins exclaimed at the same time.

“Now,” Dipper began walking out the room. “Can someone get me a bin bag?”

“Why?” Bob said.

“For the body.”


	9. Orientation Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pines parents find out the true nature of Gravity Falls.

“I still don’t understand why you can’t tell us.” Helen sighed.

“For the millionth time, because it will be easier to explain when we’re there and we can show you proof.” Dipper replied, frantically texting just about everyone in Gravity Falls about the situation at hand.

“Hmph” Helen looked at her husband. “Are we nearly there yet? This entire journey’s been a battle between me and a dead arse.”

“We get there when we get there.”

“That’s not a time.”

“I don’t know!”

“Then give me an estimate.”

“About an hour.”

“You literally said that four hours ago.”

“Just kill me now.” Bob muttered under his breath.

“And then the guy’s face exploded!” Mabel shouted to Candy and Grenda over the phone.

“Whoa!” Grenda said quietly (at least, it was for her). “Was he hot?”

“Yes!” Candy interjected. “You say he was Australian?”

“I don’t really know if he was hot. I was kinda focusing on not dying.”

“His headless corpse is in the boot of you want to take a look.” Dipper said.

“No thank you Dipper.” Candy replied.

About two hours later (Bob really was that bad at taking educated guesses), the car neared the small lumber town of Gravity Falls. Dipper was anxiously picking his nails and looking out the window. This was a moment he knew would come ever since they encountered the gnomes. He would have to tell his parents the truth and possibly face the consequences. Me and Mabel could- His train of thought was cut when the words “Grammar, Stanley.” Echoed through his mind. He’d always been one for correct grammar, but ever since that moment he had been especially careful. Mabel and me could get grounded for like a year! Even worse, they might take us back immediately and never let us come back again! They won’t do that. You’re paranoid. You are extremely paranoid. Comically so. They might take the fact that both their children have been emotionally and physically scarred by the events that transpired that they have panic attacks on an almost daily basis and can never get any sleep due to constant nightmares. Yeah. They’re gonna take so fucking well, aren’t they? This is not how I wanted them to find- He stopped thinking when he heard a knock at the window.

“Hey Dipshit!” The familiar redhead shouted. “Earth to Dipper? Hello!? You’ve been staring into space for like thirty seconds now.”

“Sorry, sorry!” Dipper said, taking in his surroundings. It seemed like the entire town had come to greet them.

“Kids?” Helen asked. “Why are all these people crowding the car?”

“‘Cos they love us!” Mabel exclaimed, up clipping her seatbelt and opening the sunroof. “GRAPPLING HOOK!” She shouted, shooting it at an overhanging tree branch and flying out the car.

“How did she get – no. I probably don’t want to know where she got that thing from.”

“Grunkle Stan.” Dipper said. “Who probably got it from Great-Uncle Ford, now that I think about it.”

“What’s this about two Grunkles?” Bob inquired.

“You’ll see.” Dipper smiled as he opened the door to get out, then was pulled back into his seat. The belt, remember the belt you idiot! Unclipping it, he stepped out of the car.

“Dipper!” Wendy hugged him. “It’s so good to see you, man!”

“Good to see you to.”

“Where’s Mabel?” Wendy said, puzzled.

“UP HERE!”

“Ah.”

“Well, we should probably get to the – Grunkle Ford!”

“Dipper!”

“What the what?” Mabel shouted as she dropped down. “I am not missing a reunion with my two favourite Grunkles! Hi Grunkle Stan!”

“It’s good to see you too kiddo.” Stan said, ruffling her hair. He was wearing his old Mr. Mystery attire because even though Soos was the manager of the Shack, Stan was still CEO (Soos was acting CEO when Stan wasn’t there though). “Looks like the nerds are having a reunion.” He pointed at Dipper and Ford.

Helen was pulling her bag from the boot when she heard a voice. “Hey.” Turning to look, she saw to identical old men standing there.

“What?” She asked, confused. “Bob?”

“Yeah honey? What do you – oh my hot Belgian waffles, is that Stanley?”

“No. I’m Stanford.” Ford said, holding up his hand. “This is Stanley.”

“But when we sent the kids to live with you, you only had five fingers.”

“That was Stan pulling the wool over the whole world’s eyes because I was stuck in a – they’ve not told you yet, have they?”

“No. They’ve not explained what any of this is about.” Helen snapped, clearly annoyed. “Wait, that wasn’t Stanford?”

“Nope.” Stan looked extremely proud of himself.

“Why you lying son of a bitch! Why did you lie to us?”

“I’ve told you guys a lot of lies, you’re gonna have’ta be more specific.”

“Now now. Let’s just calm down. I’ll get the kids and we’ll explain everything.” Ford suggested, stepping in between Stan and Helen, as it looked like a full on fight was going to break out.

“Good idea.” Bob put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Come on.” He looked over at Dipper, who was chatting to some blonde girl. Mabel was standing there with the friends she had told him about looking at what looked to be two police officers showing them rings. “Dipper! Mabel!” The two looked over at him. “I think you owe us an explanation.”

“And you expect us to believe all this?!” Helen shouted. “That some evil Dorito possessed Dipper,” She paused when her son visibly paled and got somewhat jittery. “Then tried to destroy the world but then you tried to stop it with some magic graffiti, then that didn’t work so you erased Stanley’s mind to kill him.”

“Yeah.” The two sets of twins said in unison.

“Can you prove any of this?” Bob asked, a bit more civil than his wife (who had an extremely short temper with any matter involving the twins). Dipper pulled out and odd looking flashlight, fiddled with it for a second and then turned it on. The Pines parents shrank down to the size of a mouse.

“What the hell is going on?!” Helen screamed, panicking. “Are we gonna stay the size of a fucking ant forever?”

“Language…” Bob murmured.

“No.” Dipper fiddled with the torch again. A moment later, both parents were back to normal size. There was an awkward silence until Bob spoke up.

“Well, I’m gonna go stare at a wall and rethink everything.”

“Me too.” As his parents walked out of the room, Dipper looked at Mabel.

“They took that surprisingly well.”

“I think you two should go catch up with your friends whilst me, Stanley and your parents have a rather in-depth talk about both of your…” Ford searched for the right word. “Conditions.”

“You got it, Grunkle Ford! I guess we’ll have to catch up with you two later.”

“Well, as long as Ford doesn’t go hide in the lab like a sleep deprived vampire we will! Ha!” Stan laughed, slapping his twin on the back.

“You too Dipper.”

“I know. But there’s something I have to do first.” Both Stans looked at him oddly, knowing that could literally mean anything. “Nothing dangerous! I’ll save that for later.”

“Okay.” Ford conceded. “But be careful.” Dipper nodded, then walked out the door. “And be back before ten!”

“So.” Helen said, walking back into the room, Bob in tow. “You too have a lot explaining to do and a lot of apologies to give. Apologies that I’ll only accept in the form of a coffee for the both of us, a packet of crisps, some dinner that isn’t takeaway,” She said the last part looking at Stan knowingly. “And a complete rundown of the aftermath of the summer in hell.”

“As far as things go,” Stan chucked. “I’ve made worse deals.”

“You aren’t referring to the deal you made with-”

“Can it Poindexter.”

“Stanley, can you go make some coffee please?” Ford asked. Stan grunted in response.

“So how are they?” Bob said.

“In what way do you mean?”

“I mean, stuff like getting possessed and living through the apocalypse must have done wonders for their mental health. Wouldn’t it?”

“I can tell you from first hand experience that both of those situations are the opposite of fun.” Ford looked at their expressions. “Oh, you’re being serious. Let’s see: they both have PTSD, they both blame themselves for Weirdmageddon, Mabel especially, Dipper has survivor’s guilt, they both suffer from panic attacks on a day-to-day basis and have trouble sleeping due to wake up screaming nightmares. I think that about covers it. Also, the PTSD was actually diagnosed by a therapist that was here for Weirdmageddon. So, overall I’d say that Dipper has it worse, he got possessed by Bill and he had to survive in the apocalypse whilst being actively hunted for three days by himself.”

“Well, you’re certainly good at being brutally honest.” Bob noted.

“It’s what he does best.” Stan walked into the room holding two cups of coffee and a packet of crisps. “Along with getting all the medical mumbo-jumbo out of the way. Here.” He placed everything down on the table.

“But good things came out of the whole experience too.” Ford continued.

“I don’t need you to tell me that.” Helen said. “They love this place so much I wouldn’t be surprised if they were attracted to it by magic.”

“Actually, it was a mix of Gravity Falls’ natural law of weirdness magnetism, destiny and a bit of dumb luck that brought them here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, since Dipper has a birth defect, he would he’s here because of all three of those reasons. Mabel is here because of destiny and dumb luck.”

“Oh.”

“Actually, you two might be counted as weird, as your kids are weird, so that might make it so you got brought here by the law!” Ford said, going into what Stan called, ‘Crazy scientist theory mode.’

Dipper trudged through the forest, unsure if this was a good idea or not. It could go south easily; he could have a panic attack, he could stop breathing due to sheer shock, or he could be completely fine. Jesus. He thought. I’m thirteen and I’m already having to think about stuff like this. Figures, I guess. He thought about the notion for what seemed like an eternity. He should be thinking about how to ace the next science test he has, not what happens if he suddenly loses consciousness due to complete and utter shock. About what girls he has a crush on, not looking for danger at every turn. He should be thinking about the last movie he saw, not about the fact that not four months ago the fate of the universe rested on his shoulders. He had to find everybody and if he had failed at that? He shuddered at the mere thought of his family and friend being taken to the Fearamid by- his train of thought was cut off when he approached a clearing where a dirty stone statue lay, wedged into the ground. “Bill.” Shakily, he walked forward. Come on Dipper. It’s literally his dead body. You’ve seen a dead body before. Wow. That’s a disturbing thought, nowYou can do this. I can do this. Yeah. I can do this. I can’t do this. It’s to difficult. Come on, breathe Dipper, 3, 2, 1, go. He turned around and sat on the floor to face his fear. He stared it down, like a predator stalking it’s prey.

“Y-you k-know,” He began. Jesus, I sound like a broken record. Calm down. He took a deep breath. “This is a totally new experience for me. I’ve only ever looked at your statue with my own eyes in the Fearamid. After that, I was too scared to even think about you. Guess time really does heal wounds.” He sighed. “You’re the worst, you know that? I know I said that about Pacifica once, but I really mean it this time. You’re an asshole. And if you’re listening in through the afterlife or something, I hope you hear this; you hurt people. Innocent people like Mabel and me. You hurt them to keep up the façade that you’re happy. I know you’re not, even if you don’t. I know you saw your own dimension burn. I bet it was horrible. So how about you think about what it was like for me.” He stood up. “I hope wherever you are, you hate it. With every fibre of your being. Because you’re an asshole. You’re dead, Bill. And there’s fuck all you can do about it.” Turning away, he walked off.

“OH, I’M AN ASSHOLE?” Bill shouted. “Really?” He looked at the Axolotl. “I INVOKED YOUR NAME. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GIVE ME A SECOND CHANCE. NOT STICK ME IN THE AFTERLIFE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.”

“I did give you a second chance. In the afterlife.” The Axolotl responded.

“THAT WASN’T THE DEAL AND YOU KNOW IT.”

“You’re accusing me of bending the rules? Bit bloody rich coming from you.”

“WHY YOU LITTLE… ARGHH! IF I STILL HAD MY POWERS I WOULD DISASSEMBLE YOUR MOLECULES!”

“Even if your powers were restored, you couldn’t kill me. There’s no way to get back. No way to get revenge.” The Axolotl said. “You’re dead Bill. And there’s fuck all you can do about it, to quote the Pines boy. Enjoy your eternal suffering.” Bill humphed.

“ASSHOLE.”

Dipper opened his eyes slowly. Where am I? He thought. The last thing he remembered was coming back to the Shack and getting into bed. That means this must be a dream.

“WELL, WELL, WELL. LOOK WHO IT IS.” Dipper heard from behind him. He turned around.

“You’re dead. You’re not really here. You’re my imagination.”

“YOU’RE RIGHT PINETREE. I AM YOUR IMAGINATION. I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO HAUNT YOUR DREAMS MYSELF, BUT YOUR MEMORIES OF ME WORK FINE I GUESS. THEY GET THE JOB DONE.”

“Go away.”

“OH, ARE YOU SCARED? HOW ABOUT I SHOW YOU THE TRUTH.”

“What?”

“THAT NONE OF THIS IS REAL. GRAVITY FALLS DOESN’T EXIST. YOU’RE DYING.”

“Bullshit.”

“WHAT SOUNDS MORE REALISTIC PINETREE. THAT YOU SAVED THE WORLD? THAT YOU GOT POSSESSED? THAT YOU ACTUALLY MANAGED TO MAKE FRIENDS? WAKE UP PINETREE, THIS ISN’T REAL. YOU GOT SHOT. RIGHT THROUGH THE HEART. THE REALITY IS THAT YOUR BRAIN CAN’T HANDLE THE ELECTRODES RACING THROUGH IT AND THIS IS YOUR REACTION TO IT. AND WHENEVER SOMETHING DOESN’T MAKE SENSE, YOU MAKE UP SOME STUPID EXPLANATION TO MAKE IT WORK. BUT THE TRUTH IS NOTHING CAN SAVE YOU. YOU’RE DYING. AND THERE’S FUCK ALL YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.”

Dipper jolted awake, panting and sweating. He looked over to the other side of the room. Mabel was lying on her bed, fast asleep. He pinched himself. Feels pretty real to me. It’s two in the morning. I should probably get some sleep. Actually, you know what I’ve not had in a while? A coffee. A good, strong coffee that’ll keep all the nightmares away. Yeah. That’s a good idea.

Helen sat on the couch, lost in thought. She knew the answers she had been searching for would be odd, but she didn’t expect it to be that odd. She didn’t know how to feel; on one hand, he kids were destined spot save the world (a fact she had been quite proud of). On the other, this pace was dangerous. Especially to someone inexperienced with the supernatural. Then again, people lived here no bother (she had gone into town to get some food and passed a bar filled with giant cow men) so maybe it was pretty safe if you didn’t go out looking for the stuff. Suddenly, she heard a creaking noise behind her. Turning around, she saw Dipper standing at the bottom of the stairs, frozen like a deer in headlights. “What on Earth are you doing up? It’s two in the morning.”

“Ehhhhhhhh, I… could ask for you the same question.” Dipper said as he filled the kettle.

“I just found out that not only is magic real, you and your sister seem oddly attracted to it.”

“That’ll be the law of-”

“Law of weirdness magnetism. Yeah, I heard all about it from Ford.”

“I think that’s the one thing I regret not telling you.” Dipper sat down next to her, coffee in hand.

“I don’t know what it’s like keeping a secret that big.”

“You will soon.”

“How do you mean?”

“You can’t tell anyone at home about this. With the possible exception of Grandpa Shermie.”

“God, you’re right.” Helen sighed. “He probably does deserve to know that he’s not a brother short anymore.” Dipper chuckled. “But I can’t help but realise that you’ve not answered my question: why are you up?”

“Oh, eh… just can’t sleep?” His mother looked at him disapprovingly. “Bad dream.”

“You’ve been saying that for four months, do you really think that’s going to work?”

“No.” There was a long silence. “It was about Bill.”

Called it. Helen thought. “Tell me about it.”

“He… he said none of this was real. That it was all a fantasy my brain made up in my dying moments. He basically said that Wendy and Soos didn’t exist and Grunkle Stan really is dead. That Grunkle Ford is just your average scientist. That none of it even matters. And the weirdest part is that that notion is scarier than anything else.”

“I understand.”

“No you don’t. You weren’t there, you’ll never understand.”

“You’re right. I doubt I will ever fully understand. But that doesn’t mean I can’t help.”

“You’re not going to stop us coming here, are you?”

“… no.”


	10. Orientation Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper discovers newfound determination to stop Aida.

“Ready… aim… aaaaannnd… fire.” Ford said, looking over Dipper’s shoulder. The energy bolt hit the centre of the target. Dipper lowered the laser gun, smiling. “Great shot.”

“WOOOOOO!” Mabel shouted, cheering on her brother. “Go Dipper!”

“Try it one more time.” Ford said.

“Okay.” Dipper shot the gun again. The bolt hit just outside the bullseye.

“You’re getting pretty good at this, but I think I should teach Mabel too.” Dipper lowered the gun and handed it to his sister. “Right.” Ford picked another gun from the box next to him. “This is the safety.” Mabel nodded. “When you want to shoot, turn it off. Even so, keep your finger off the trigger unless you’re in the middle of a fight. This little switch at the back changes it from stun to kill or to wound. Think of it as a power setting. Never shoot with the kill button on unless there’s no other option. Keep it on stun. Got it?”

“Yeah!”

“Good.” Ford put the gun down and kneeled down behind his great-niece. He positioned the gunning her hands to point at the target. “Brace yourself for the recoil. It may be a laser gun but it’s still got some kickback in it. 3, 2, 1, fire.” The bolt of energy raced through the air and hit the outer edge of the target. “Always go for the chest. The head might be a bona-fide insta-kill, but it’s a small target. And again.” This time the bolt hit somewhat closer to the centre. “Good. You’re getting better. Now, this is a laser gun. It obviously doesn’t have to be reloaded. But, it can overheat if you shoot it too fast for too long.”

“I wanna make it blow up!”

“Please don’t.”

Helen watched the scene unfolding in front of her from the Mystery Shack’s front porch. She had conflicting feelings on the whole matter. On one hand, her kids were literally destined for greatness. Lots of parents say that, but it was literal for her. On the other, they were learning how to use weapons more dangerous than any normal gun.

“Hey.” Dipper said as he walked up to her, journal in hand.

“Oh, is it now? I ought to get changed and-”

“The supernatural doesn’t wait ‘till you’re ready.” Dipper cut her off. “That would be boring.” They walked for a few moments before he realised something. “We forgot the body.”

“Yeah, better go back for that.”

About ten minutes later, the two walked into the woods dragging the bin bag that housed Dundee’s headless body. “So,” Helen said. “How long have you been writing on your walls?” Dipper gulped.

“Since the first night I got back. Just kinda helps me let off a bit of steam, that’s all.”

“You know, for a second I thought you had lost your marbles.”

“Mum, I lost my marbles a long time ago.” Dipper sighed. “We’re here.” He gestured to the tall, generic looking tree. The only difference was that there were people crowded around it. “Hi. Mum, this is Wendy and Soos, you know them, also Pacifica and Gideon.”

“Hi!” The two former villains said in unison.

“Yeah, hello. I’m Helen. I’ve heard a lot about you.” She glared at Gideon in particular.

“To be fair, he was under the influence of a magic amulet for quite a while and went kind of power crazy.” Dipper defended. “And Pacifica’s trying her best. I’ve seen firsthand that it was her parent’s fault.”

“HOLY HOOTENANNY!” Came a shout from above. Everyone looked up to see a black helicopter slowly descending down next to them. An old, bearded scientist stepped out. He had a short white beard and grey hair. He also wore a pair of green-lensed glasses and a white lab coat.

“And this is Fiddleford McGucket. Town genius.” Dipper said.

“You must be Helen.” McGucket reached out a hand to shake hers.

“I wasn’t aware anyone in this town used handshakes anymore.”

“Some still do.”

“So what are we doing here, anyway?”

“This is not just a tree. Wendy, could you…?”

“I’m offended you had to ask.” She was already pulling off her belt to climb the tree, axe in hand.

“So that hat she’s wearing used to be yours?” Helen asked Dipper.

“How’d you figure it out?”

“Well, that’s a lumberjack hat, you’re the pine tree on the zodiac and also it would look great on you… you… holy mother all things holy.” She murmured as the tree began sinking into the ground. “You know, with what I’ve heard about Ford, this shouldn’t be surprising. He has a secret door behind the vending machine.”

“Yep. By the way, the shapeshifter turned into me just as it was frozen so don’t let it out.” Suddenly, a loud crash followed by screaming echoed in the distance. Dipper looked towards the source. “The heck was that?” He muttered. “Guys, you just follow the plan. I’m gonna go check this out.” Walking away, he drew his gun. He’d brought it for any unfortunate encounter with the shapeshifter. Back when McGucket was still crazy, rampages like this were normal, due to his murder robots. Now, they were practically unheard of. He walked past the Dusk2Dawn and remembered the adventure in there. That had only been a few months ago, but it felt like an eternity. He trudged through the snow, gun held in front of him. Suddenly, a familiar face, well, faces, charged through a building and across the street. Multi-Bear? Dipper thought. It’s him? But why? He’s usually so nice. He pulled out his phone and dialled Ford’s number.

“Hello?”

“Yeah, hi Grunkle Ford. We have a bit of a situation in the town centre.”

“How bad is it?”

“Bad as in; one of my old monster friends is rampaging across the town even though usually he couldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Oh dear. Stay in pursuit but don’t engage, I should be able to track your phone.” Ford said. Ever since he had been introduced to 21st century technology he had been fascinated by it. Apparently he’d once made a vow never to be one of those old people that don’t have any bearing on modern technology and he planned to stick to it. “I’ll bring Mabel and Stanley.”

“Got it.” Dipper hung up the phone. Stay in pursuit. That’s what he said. He caught a quick glimpse of his friend as he ran behind Greasy’s Diner. All the Multi-Bear’s eyes were glowing a bright blue. All of them. That’s a lot of eyes. What the hell is going on with him? Lost in thought, he didn’t realise the Multi-Bear had disappeared.

“Rrrrrgggghhhhhaaaaaaagghhhhhh!” Came a roar from behind him. Dipper whipped around to see the bear walking towards him on all fours.

“Hey, hey.” He said, holding his gun behind his back. “It’s okay.” He reached a hand out. “It’s me, Dipper. We’re friends.” The Multi-Bear quickened its pace. “Okay. Guess it’s time to resort to aggressive negotiations.” He drew his gun, checked it was on stun, then promptly shot about ten bolts into the advancing bear. “Okay, that did nothing.” Whatever made him like this must be making him more pain resistant. I should probably run now.

Ford ran towards the Gravity Falls town centre with Stan and Mabel in tow. He pulled out his phone.

“Helen, we have a situation. Stay in the bunker, okay?”

“What?” Helen asked, beginning to panic. “What’s happening? Are the kids in danger?”

“Even if they were, they’d be fine. This is just a run of the mill monster rampage. No big deal.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll stay in the bunker with everyone else.”

“Thanks.” Pulling his gun out, he put the phone away. Suddenly, Dipper ran around the corner. He had obviously ignored Ford’s order to avoid the creature. His black eye was proof of that.

“Grunkle Ford! I shot him with like, ten stun bolts and it did nothing!”

“Shot him?” Stan asked.

“It’s the Multi-Bear.”

“Yeah, well it’s still rampaging across town.”

“It is my friend. We aren’t going to kill him.”

“I don’t intend on killing him.” Ford reassured Dipper.

“Why are we all arguing?” Mabel interjected. “We need to stop the monster!”

“You’re probably right.” Ford realised. “Come on, let’s move!” They ran up to the town hall and saw the Multi-Bear prowling around the statue of Nathaniel Northwest. “Maybe we could knock the statue on it. Then I could freeze the statue onto it and it would be too heavy to move.” He held up a gun labelled ‘Freeze-o-matic 9000.’

“But how would we do that?” Stan asked.

“GRAPPLING HOOK!”

“Oh, right.”

“Good idea Mabel!” Ford said. “But I doubt any of us will be strong enough. Maybe if we weaken the foundations we can pull it down.” Suddenly, Dipper stood up and shot at the statue’s foot, blasting a small chunk off. “Good job. Mabel, you go to the second floor of the town hall and pull the statue down when I give the signal.” Mabel nodded and ran off.

“I’ll keep him distracted!” Dipper shouted as he dashed in the other direction.

“Stanley?”

“Yeah?”

“Move your ass.”

“With pleasure.” Stan got up from behind the bush they were using as cover and pulled out two laser guns. “Alright Northwest, have a taste!”

“Yes!” Ford shouted, getting up too. “Destroy the lying bas-”

“Ford, watch your language.”

Dipper slid under a park bench and quickly stood up. “Grunkle Ford, how much longer do I have to distract him for?!”

“Just a bit longer!” Ford shouted as Dipper passed him by. “Mabel!”

“I’m ready!”

“Dipper! Now!” Stan commanded. Dipper ran over to the statue. Just as he passed it, Mabel shot her grappling hook onto it and pulled it down. The statue landed on top of the Multi-Bear.

“Great job everyone!” Ford shouted, readying the freeze ray and walking a tad too close to the bear.

“Uh, Sixer?”

“Not now, Stanley.” Ford fiddled with the gun. “Come on.”

“Sixer? Sixer! Ford!”

“What?!”

“Get-” Stan cut himself off when the Multi-Bear (who had pushed the statue away mere moments ago) struck Ford across the face with its paw.

“Aaarrrghhh!” Ford screamed, dropping the freeze ray. He looked up at the creature and started backing away. “Run!” He shouted, breaking into a full on sprint, as did Stan, Dipper and Mabel.

“Grunkle Ford, it’s gaining on us!” Mabel shouted.

“He.”

“Whatever.”

“Yeah, well he’s my – oh, no.” They were at a dead end. Literally. “Shit.”

“So, you got any more of those gadgets Poindexter? I really hope the answer’s yes.”

“We came on very short notice! I just picked this up because it was in the immediate vicinity!”

“Will you two stop arguing already?” Mabel pleaded. “We’re about to die, the least you two can do is get along.” Stan looked at the rabid bear approaching them with a tear in his eye.

“Kids.” Dipper and Mabel looked at him in shock. “If I die… make sure I get the same sized gravestone as Ford.” He took a deep breath then charged. “Get ready to have your head ripped off seven times over!” Just as Stan was about to hit the raging beast, it froze in place. Stan stopped in his tracks and poked it. It was encased in ice. He looked behind the Multi-Bear to see Helen standing the, freeze ray in hand.

“Mum?” Dipper asked. “You saved us! But how are you here?”

“Well, you told me to stay behind.” Helen said. “But I wasn’t just going to stay there. I’m not a liability, so I came to help. I found this on the floor then followed the trail of destruction and dead bodies.”

“Whoa!” Mabel hugged her. “Cool! You were like, a total action hero! Like Dipper! Or Grunkle Stan! Or Grunkle Ford! Or Wendy! Or Soos! Or-”

“I guess I was. Speaking of dead bodies, we dumped the assassin’s.”

“Good.” Ford walked towards the frozen monster. “Now, let’s – EVERYBODY HIT THE DECK!” Just as he shouted that, all the Multi-Bear’s heads exploded in a domino fashion. “Ugh, my head hurts. Is everyone okay?” He asked.

“I think I have a concussion. Again.”

“YEAH!”

“I think so.”

“Better than ever, Poindexter!”

Dipper sat on the roof of the Mystery Shack sipping a Pitt Cola.

“Hey bro-bro. I brought you some ice.”

“Thanks.” Dipper said with a smile as he held it up to his swollen eye.

“You okay?”

“That bomb that killed Dundee. It’s the same one that killed Multi-Bear. These events are linked and I bet whoever killed them also made Multi-Bear go feral. I’m gonna find them.”

“I’m sorry they killed your friend Dipper.”

“No. They’re going to be sorry. Whoever they are.”


	11. Best Laid Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aida makes herself known.

The Pines sat in Greasy’s Diner, all six of them squashed into one small booth. “Right, what do you want?” A familiar voice said. Dipper looked up.

“Pacifica? You didn’t tell me you worked here.” It was at that point that the Northwest heir seemed to realise who she was serving.

“Oh, uh… I-” Before she could finish the sentence however, the lights went out.

Phil sat in the truck waiting. “You got the thing?” His subordinate handed him a pair of small earbuds and a metallic device. “Good.” He looked at his watch. “3… 2… 1… and… kill it!” The henchman pressed a button on the console. There was the distinct sound of lights going out. “Go, go, go!”  
All ten men exited the truck and entered the diner. Phil walked over to a specific booth that had six people sitting in it. He pushed the short waitress aside. “Stanford Filbrick Pines.”

“You know me?” Ford asked.

“I do.” Phil pushed the button on his device and everyone in the diner froze. He snapped his fingers. Two men walked towards the older Stan twin and pulled a bag over his head. “Chop chop. Aida’ll have our heads if we don’t get him to her.”

Dipper looked around. The lights and went off, a guy had come in, exchanged some words with Ford then vanished. Just like that.

“Uhhhh, Sixer?” Stan said. Dipper looked up. Ford was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh god.” He muttered.

The bag was pulled off of Ford’s head quickly. He opened his eyes to see a red humanoid creature kneeling down in front of him. The creature started pulling off the tape over Ford’s mouth very slowly. “Oh, for god’s sake just pull it off.” He said, his voice muffled.

“I am under very strict instructions…” The creature finished pulling the tape off. “Not to hurt you. Look, our boss just wants to talk to you.”

“Am I supposed to find that reassuring?”

“Yes.” A woman announced as she walked in the room. She had black hair and somewhat tanned skin. She wore a long black dress with a white lab coat over it and a pair of black gloves. “That was the whole point of telling you that before I made my proposal.”

“Is it really so important that you couldn’t tell me over the phone?”

“Yes. My name is Aida Allen. You’ve already met Brandt. He’s my right hand man with this operation.”

“Look, what do you want with me?”

“These.” The woman held up a gloved hand. In it she was holding a royal blue crystal.

“What is that?”

“It’s called a termention Crystal. They’re lethal to humans, so don’t touch. Inside, they contain a gas that is also lethal to humans. But the mist makes a fantastic fuel source.”

“I’m guessing you want me to go inside them and figure out how they’re made, correct?”

“Yes. I need you to do that so you can make more of them.”

“To power the planet.”

“Why me?”

“Well, you were the smartest person I could find with a PhD in Chemical Engineering who also knew of the Supernatural, so here we are.”

Ford was suspicious. First, an assassin was sent after Dipper and Mabel. Then the Multi-Bear went rampaging across town. Now he’s been kidnapped. Maybe if I help them, I could find out what they’re up to. “I will help you.”

“So where is he?” Bob asked, tapping his foot.

“I don’t know.” Stan had a solemn expression on his face.

“Everyone else experienced the two-minute time jump and the cameras just went offline. There’s nothing. Maybe whoever took his used some freezing device, or something.” Dipper looked at the recently installed holotable furiously typing away. McGucket had made some upgrades for Ford when they were on their boat trip.

“Just last week I would have said you were talking out your ass.” Helen said. “Now, it seems very plausible.” Wendy and Soos chuckled at this. “We’re literally standing in a hidden lair.”

“Yeah, Gravity Falls’ll do that to ‘ya.” The teen joked.

“I talked to the Mayor about gettin’ a search team out for him.”

“Then again, the police in this town are about as competent as your average horror movie protagonist.” Dipper finished his Great-Uncle’s sentence.

“So what do we do now?” Bob inquired.

“We go look for him! I’ll get Waddles! He could help!”

“No need.” Came a voice from the stairs. Everyone turned and saw Ford standing there looking a bit worse for wear.

“Grunkle Ford!” Dipper and Mabel said at the same time. “What happened?”

“Well, I have a lead on our exploding heads case.” Dipper looked up suddenly.

“Really? But how did you escape?”

“Weeeeellllllll…”

“I will help you.” Ford announced.

“Good.” Aida replied with a genuine smile on her face.

“But I need equipment.”

“By all means. Ask. Money isn’t exactly an issue here.”

“Thank you.” About ten minutes later, Ford was set up with all the necessary equipment plus a gas mask and a pair of gloves. “What are these for?”

“The gloves are so you can hold the crystals. The mask is for if the gas leaks out. You who have to cut deep enough for that though. We do only have eight, so be careful. They’re the rarest substance on the planet.” Aida said. “We have eight of them. We need you to make artificial ones. To do that, you need eight. So don’t drop any.”

“Okay…” Ford pulled the gloves and mask on as Aida left the room. He pulled the microscope out and began to work.

Four hours later, Ford had come to a few conclusions. One: these couldn’t be used as a power source. Two: they could be used to supercharge creatures. Three: he’d figured out Aida’s origin and her plan (he’d found a notebook in the drawer and used that the piece the facts together from there. She’d obviously forgotten she’d put it there). And four: he had access to all their tormention crystals. So he needed to escape. Suddenly, Brandt walked into the room.

“Aida needs you to-” Ford cut him off by landing a left hook to the side of his face. Brandt recovered quickly and grabbed for the case, but only succeeding in knocking one of the crystals out and onto the table. Ford quickly and brutally slammed his head against the wall, knocking him out. He hadn’t noticed the crystal being knocked out. He shut the case, tucked it under his arm and ran.

“Then I evaded capture and escaped.” Ford concluded.

“Where are they based?” Dipper said, forever asking the important questions.

“Crash Site Omega.” Everyone looked confused (other than Dipper, as he knew what it was). “The crashed UFO under the town.” Most people in the room nodded. Helen just sighed.

“I can’t believe this.” She muttered.

“What else did’ja find out then Poindexter?”

“Well…”

“And I got these.” Ford placed the case on the desk after he’d relayed all the information.

“So time travel exists and we’re just gonna accept that?” Bob mumbled.

“Me and Mabel have traveled through time on two separate occasions.”

“Oh.”

“Moving on from that,” Dipper began. “What are we going to do with these?”

“They’re too dangerous and frankly, too fascinating to destroy. We’ll have to hide them.”

“Aren’t they gonna come after us?” Mabel asked.

“Yes. I say we lure them out, find a hiding place and fight them off. Knock them off the scent. Then we can move them to somewhere they can’t find.”

“Yeah.” Dipper nodded.

“Well, let’s get on with it then!” Stan shouted, obviously a bit bored by the whole exchange.

Aida slapped Brandt across the face, hard. She was stronger than she looked. “You’re demoted.”

“There was nothing I could do.” Brandt tried, pressing an ice pack against his forehead.

“You can teleport!”

“It’s tiring.”

“Bullshit! You have done absolutely fuck all today.”

“Sorry.”

“Find them. Bring Ford and the crystals back. Or else.”

“Yes ma’am.” Brandt turned to a henchman. “Activate the tracker on my signal.”

Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Ford, Wendy and Soos walked through the Gravity Falls forest with a quick pace. They were all wearing thicker clothes than usual, considering the less than ideal weather.

“Grunkle Ford, have you found anywhere to hide them?” Mabel asked.

“Yes. I reckon if we can persuade the manotaurs, they could make fearsome protectors.”

“Oh god, I forgot about them.” Dipper muttered. “I really don’t want to reach into the pain hole again.”

“What was even in there that hurt so much?” Wendy inquired.

“I don’t know. And I don’t think I want to, it felt like my arm was being torn off.”

“I keep thinking I’m gonna wake up. Ever since you guys came everything’s gotten unbelievably awesome.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, when I took the job at the Shack it was just supposed to be way to get some easy money. It wasn’t supposed to change my life. I honestly thought I’d regret it, but it turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made.” Dipper smiled.

It was late afternoon when they arrived at the man cave. Walking up to the entrance, Dipper cleared his throat. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” He looked at the Minotaur guarding the entrance. “Heeeeeyyyy, Chutzpar! Remember me?”

“Destructor?”

“Dipper, just say Dipper.”

“You! You’re the guys that defeated Bill Cipher during Weirdmageddon.”

“Yeah, we are. Can we come in? I’d like to speak with Leaderaur.”

“You can all come in. As far as we are concerned, you are all manly for completing such a task. Come! I will take you to our leader, Leaderaur.”

“These dorks are great with names, aren’t they?” Stan whispered. “Soos, you stay put.”

“Now is not the time Stanley.” Ford said back. “Dipper, I never had a chance to study the manotaurs and it seems you are familiar with them, so I think you should do the talking.” Dipper nodded.

“Will do.” They walked through the entrance to see a ginormous black manotaur sitting on a throne.

“Dang…” Mabel muttered.

“Ahem. Leaderaur, we would like to ask a favour.” Dipper announced. “We need to hide this case here for a while. Not long, but I need you to guard it with your lives. And whatever you do, don’t open it.”

“Hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.”

“…and?”

“Well…” Just as Leaderaur was about to finish his sentence, an explosion echoed through the cave. Ford’s eyes bulged as he pulled up the bottom of his sweater to reveal a small silver tracker. He pulled it off and stomped on it.

“Dammit.” He muttered. Suddenly, a familiar red humanoid walked around the corner, flanked by about ten guards.

“Well well well, look what we have here.” Brandt said. If he didn’t have a gas mask on he’d be smiling. When he saw Ford reaching for his gun, he pulled a blue crystal out from his pocket. “Stop. Or you all die and they all go fer-” Soos cut him off when he smacked him over the head with a rock, knocking the teleporting monster out cold. Suddenly, everyone sprung into action. Wendy smacked a henchman with the butt of her axe whilst Dipper and Ford shot from afar. Stan went in with his brass knuckles and Mabel used her grappling hook. When all the guards were defeated, Brandt opened his eyes blearily. “Shit.” He muttered as the six members of the zodiac closed in on him. Then, he had a thought. “Well,” He smiled. “In for a penny.” He pulled the crystal out of his pocket and dropped it, then teleported away.

Time seemed to slow down as Dipper leaped forward and reached his right hand out to catch the crystal. Just as it seemed like it was going to hit the floor, it landed in his hand. For a moment, nothing happened. Then his hand started turning to stone.

“Dipper…” Mabel was lost for words as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Mabel.” Dipper said. “It’s going to be be-” He was cut off when Wendy slammed the blade of her axe all the way through Dipper’s right arm, right where the stone ended. She’d saved him. “SON OF A BI-”

Dipper opened his eyes slowly. Am I in a hospital? Probably. What happened that got me into – oh, right. No arm. “Ugh. Everything hurts.”

“Dipper!” Suddenly, Mabel jumped on him. “You’re awake.” Then an angry expression crossed her face. “Why did you you do that?! You could’ve gotten yourself killed! Or were you planning on Wendy chopping your hand off?”

“No! But it was better for me to die than all of us. That’s simple math.” He sighed as Mabel got off him. “At least tell me Grunkle Ford’s working on a cybernetic arm or something.”

“With McGucket, yeah.”

“Well, at least we know who sent the assassin.”

“We’re working on a plan.”

“Well, can you wait? I’d like to be a part of it.”

“In other news, the plan worked.” Ford announced as he walked into the room. “We threw them off the scent and I’ve hidden them where no one can find them. We thought it would be safer if only I knew.”

“Yeah.” Dipper mumbled.

“Failure.” Aida shouted. “You had one job, one! Just the one! And you fucking failed. How on Earth did you fucking fail? The only thing you succeeded in was getting the poor boy’s arm chopped off. Great work.”

“They’re formidable fighters ma’am.” Aida sighed.

“Plan B it is then.”


	12. What If…?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper learns more about Gravity Falls on his quest to save his family.

“Are we there yet?” Mabel asked excitedly.

“You’re about ten minutes away.” Dipper said. He was sitting in the Shack’s basement looking at the live feed from Ford’s glasses.

“Ten minutes Mabel.” Ford smiled. “Dipper, how are you holding up?”

“Good.” Dipper looked down at his handless arm. It was in a black sling, as the cybernetic hand hadn’t been finalised yet. He hadn’t fully processed that he was literally missing his hand yet. He hadn’t really accepted it.

“Uhh, Sixer?”

“Yes Stanl – aaarrrghhh!” Ford’s glasses were knocked off his face.

“Grunkle Ford?” Dipper asked, cautiously. “Mabel? Grunkle Stan? Anyone?” From the video feed he saw a man kneel down before it cut to static.

“So this man,” Helen said, pointing at the frozen image. “Kidnapped them. All three of them, just like that?”

“Yeah.” Dipper pressed a few buttons before a different picture appeared on the the screen. “I ran facial recognition and I discovered who he is.”

“Edmund Drysdale.” Wendy muttered. “Resident of Gravity Falls.”

Edmund walked out of the building with a smile on his face. It was about eleven o’clock, so not too late. He unlocked his car and got in. Suddenly, he heard a click from behind him and something being pushed into the back of his seat.

“Listen to me very carefully.” Looking in the rear-view mirror, he saw a boy with chocolate brown hair sitting in the backseat. He was missing his right hand and his arm was in a sling.

“What do you want?” Great, I’m being threatened by a child. A child with a gun.

“Drive to the Mystery Shack.” Edmund hesitated, then he felt something jab against his back. “Now.”

“Okay, okay.”

Edmund walked into the tourist trap to see two adults and a redhead teen. The teen walked over to him and placed a bag over his head.

Dipper pulled the black bag off of the man’s head. “Where did you take my family?”

Edmund hesitated. “The Pines?”

“Yeah.” Dipper picked up his gun from the table.

“I was sent here from Lottocron 9 30,000 years ago to observe the evolution of your species. There are seven of us on this planet, all stationed in different magical hotspots. There’s one in each continent. Obviously North America’s is Gravity Falls. Europe’s is the Scottish highlands, Asia’s is somewhere in Russia and Australasia’s is somewhere in the Australian outback. Africa’s is Egypt and South America’s is somewhere in Colombia? The Arctic Ocean is Antarctica’s.”

“I’m not here for a history lesson.”

“I also have another responsibility; I have to send three humans a year into the multiverse to test boundaries.”

“You sent them to the multiverse?!”

“Yes. But before you strangle me to death, there’s one more thing I need to tell you.”

“Get on with it.”

“Certain dimensions have stipulations. For example, yours is blocked off. The dimension I sent your family to also has a stipulation; there can only be one version of each person there at a time. For example, if I were to go in, I would only have the other me’s memories. The only way to get them back would be to send them back through the portal.” Edmund said.

“Okay. Then send me through.”

“You can’t! The second you go in you’ll forget who you are and you’ll be stuck there forever.”

“Is there any way to stop that?”

“… possibly. If you encrypt you’re thoughts, it’ll prevent it.”

Dipper smiled. “Well you’re gonna have to fix our one then.”

Two hours later, Edmund tightened the last bolt. “Done. Now you just need to choose who comes and encrypt their thoughts.”

Helen looked at Dipper. “I should go.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re still missing an arm.” Truth be told, she was worried about him. She hoped the cybernetic limb Ford was making him would be good.

“I have more experience with the supernatural than anyone else currently in this dimension!” Dipper shouted, shocking everyone. “I survived the apocalypse for three days by myself with nothing! No weapons, not even the journals! And I was being hunted. I was essentially public enemy number one for that whole time! One arm or two, I can handle myself. You however, can’t. I’m going and Wendy’s coming with me.”

“Fine.” Helen conceded. “You’re right.”

“Then let’s do this. Just don’t look at my thoughts. Please.”

The three Pines plus Wendy walked up Main Street with Edmund in handcuffs. Dipper pulled out the president’s key and unlocked the familiar door.

“A tunnel made of living flesh.” Helen muttered. “I wish I was joking.”

“Welcome to my life.” Dipper said with a smile. “Come on.” When they exited the tunnel, he turned to Edmund. “Now, take us to the portal.”

“This way.” He led them through the Crawlspace to a small door. He opened it up and sitting there was an odd looking contraption. He walked over to it and turned it on. The portal slowly opened up. “You’re going to wake up where your counterparts last were. The portal to get out will open in… 18 hours at the Northwest mud flaps. Good luck.”

“You’re only saying that because if this doesn’t work, you’ll never see the light of day again.”

“Exactly.”

“Wendy, are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Dipper!” Bob shouted. “Be careful.”

“I will.” Dipper smiled as he walked through the portal.

Dipper opened his eyes slowly. Where am I? And what am I – holy shit this bed is comfortable. He looked around. Where am I? He got out the bed and walked over to his wardrobe. I should probably try to blend in and – ohhhh no. In the wardrobe was about ten pairs of blue waistcoats. Good thing I’m still in my normal clothes.

“Mason?” Dipper turned around. Mabel was standing there clad in all blue.

“Ma-” She can’t remember her real life, remember? He thought. “Hi.”

“What happened to your arm?”

“Oh, I lost it.”

“Then how is it healed?”

“… magic?” Dipper tried.

“Oh. Okay. Get dressed. We have a chat with Will due in ten minutes.”

That was lucky. Wait, Will? Who’s he? Wait, no. No. He’s a reverse Bill isn’t he? But that would mean… “Mabel?”

“Yeah?”

“Say your full name.”

“… Mabel Helen Gleeful.”

Oh shit. No. No. NO! “Yeah, yeah. A chat with Will. Yeah.”

The grave sat outside the Valentino household peacefully. Suddenly, an arm came burst up. The person crawled their way out of the hole. Wendy looked at her jumper. This is Robbie’s hoodie. Then she noticed the two bullet holes on it. “I was murdered.” She muttered as she stumbled out of the cemetery. What she saw shocked her. Standing there was a statue of Dipper, Mabel, Stan and Ford. And the sign said they were Gleefuls. If Dipper’s Gideon and I’m Robbie, where could I go? The Shack, that’s it!

Dipper wandered into the cell, not sure what to expect. Laying in there he saw a man in a blue suit with blue hair. He had an eyepatch over his left eye and looked a bit worse for the wear.

“Hello Will.” Mabel said with a psychotic grin on her face. She held out her hand and a glowing green knife appeared, before flying through the air and stabbing Will in the stomach.

“Mabel!” Dipper was shocked. “What the hell is wrong with you?! You can’t just torture people! That’s wrong. Like, crimes against humanity wrong.”

“He’s a dream demon.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“Oh, sorry.” The evil twin smiled. “If you have any gripes, you’ll have to take it up with Great-Uncle Stan and Great-Uncle Ford.” And with that, Mabel walked out of the room. Dipper ran over to the bleeding man.

“Are you okay?”

“Why would you – you’re not from this dimension, are you?” Will choked out.

“How did you know?”

“I’m a dream demon.” Dipper looked at the weak, almost pathetic looking man.

“You’re not like Bill, are you?”

“What, my brother? No. He’s dead. Good riddance.”

“I know.”

“Mabel’s been replaced too.”

“I know. She doesn’t remember her life before here, so I need to get her out.”

“Good luck. But you should go.”

“I’ll get you out of here.” Dipper decided. “I promise.” He walked out the room as Will sighed.

Dipper scurried out the room with a quick pace. He couldn’t see Mabel anywhere. Suddenly, as he rounded the corner, two identical old men in black double-breasted suits walked in front of him. Their hairstyles and glasses were the only way to tell them apart.

“Great-Uncle Ford? Grunkle Stan?”

“Grunkle?” Stan muttered. “You’ve not called me that since you were six.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Mabel walked into Will’s cell. “Tell me, demon.” She knelt down in front of her prisoner. “What’s wrong with Mason?” Even though she couldn’t remember it, something deep down inside of her was telling her to worry about her brother. That’s odd, normally she wouldn’t care.

“Now, your next show starts in…” Ford looked at his watch as he addressed Dipper. “10 minutes.”

“GUARDS!” Mabel suddenly appeared from the cell. “That’s not the real Mason. Detain him!” She’d put it all together: the brown eyes, the arm, the weird aura, the smell and Will’s clue.

Next thing he knew, Dipper was bolting for the door. I need to get to the Shack.

Wendy banged on the door to the Mystery Shack. The door opened, revealing Gideon standing there wearing Dipper’s clothes. And his hat. “Gideon. I need your help.” Now that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.

“Wendy? You’re supposed to be dead. Then again, this is Gravity Falls.”

“I can explain everything.”

Dipper barged through the Shack’s front door, not caring if it was rude.

“Dipper?”

“Wendy!” Dipper walked over to her. “I would hug you, but…”

“I’ve explained the situation to them.” Wendy pointed at the two people sitting at the table.

“So I guess you’re my opposite?” Gideon pointed at Dipper.

“Yeah. And I think she’s Mabel’s.” Dipper looked at Pacifica. “She’s not really a hippie, but you’re close enough.”

“How can we help?” The Northwest girl asked. “Is there any way we can get their memories back?” A lightbulb went off in Dipper’s head.

“Grunkle Stan’s had his mind erased before. Maybe a traumatic event or something could jog his memory! But what could – can I borrow some money?”

Ten minutes later both Dipper and Wendy were on the bus to New Jersey. They got off and walked to their destination, then knocked on the door.

“Mason?” Filbrick Pines said as he opened the door.

“Is Great-Gran home?”

“…no?”

Dipper smiled. “Good.” He held up his gun. “Then you’re coming with me.”

“What? W-why?”

“Move it.” Dipper pulled him out the door.

Stan was sitting at his desk when a servant walked into the room.

“Mr. Pines,” He said. “Your father is here. He needs to see you, he says it’s urgent.”

Stan frowned. “Send him up.”

“He wants you to come see him at the door.”

“Fine.” Stan grunted. Walking down to the front door, he looked his ageing father in the eye. “Father.”

“You know how I said I was always proud ‘o you?”

“…yeah?”

“Well I wasn’t!” Filbrick shouted. “All you ever do is lie and cheat and ride on your brother’s coattails. And until you you start acting like a grown-up,” He walked into the castle and pushed Stan out. “You’re not welcome in this household!”

Suddenly, Stan began to see things. Memories, almost. But they weren’t his.

Yes! Dipper thought. He was hiding behind the massive fence that guarded the horrid place. It’s working! I think?

They weren’t his. These were – in a flash, everything began to make sense. He rubbed his eyes. “Oh god.” He muttered.

“…Grunkle Stan?”

Stan turned to see Dipper walking up to him.

“Do you remember?” Dipper gulped. This situation hit a little too close to home.

“Dipper? What happened?” Why can I remember living two different lives? And why’s Pa here?”

Dipper pulled his great-uncle away from the castle. “I’ll explain on the way.”


	13. The Devil Complex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper has one last chance to save his family.

Ford slammed his fist down on the table in anger. “Find them.” He shouted at his great-niece. “Find that imposter of your brother and kill him.” He felt an unexplained pang of guilt at the statement for some reason.

“Yes, Great-Uncle Ford.” Mabel gulped. Ford and Stan were the only two people she feared. They never hurt her, but they were intimidating nonetheless.

“I will find Stanley.” Ford announced, something in the back of his mind telling him to find Stan at all costs.

Mabel walked into Will’s cell and summoned a dagger, the amulet on her headband glowing as she did. “Now,” She said. “Tell me everything.”

“So we’re from another dimension?” Stan asked. They were back at the Mystery Shack.

“Yeah. I thought you got your memories back?” Dipper looked at his grunkle.

“Flashes. I can’t remember ev’rythin’.”

“…but you can remember enough, right?”

“Yeah.” Stan responded. “Enough ‘ta know that we need to save Mabel and Sixer.”

“How are we going to get them to the portal?” Wendy piped up.

“We could lure them there.” Stan and Gideon said at the exact same time.

“Still not used to this ‘nice Gideon crap.’”

“Shut up!” Pacifica shouted. “Jesus. Anyway, where did you say the portal would open?”

“Northwest mud flaps.” Wendy said.

“Guess that’s where we’re going then.” Stan decided.

An hour later, Dipper, Wendy and Stan looked at the factory from behind a bush. The place represented everything Dipper hated about the Northwests. Selfish assholes who couldn’t care less if their money-chasing hurt people or destroyed the enviroment.

“We’re going to be quiet.” Dipper handed a spare laser gun that he had brought with him to Stan.

“No.” Stan and Wendy announced in unison, before both vaulting over the bush and charging at the factory.

Dipper sighed. “Never mind.”

Ford tapped his foot impatiently as he stood outside the door to the cell. Soon enough, Mabel walked out dragging Will behind her.

“Northwest mud flaps.” She muttered to him.

“Let’s get on with it then.

Dipper stood on the balcony looking down at the blueish-white tear in reality. “There it is.”

“Wendy, you should go.” Stan said.

“Not a chance.”

“Look, aside from the possible exception of my Pa, your father is the most intimidating person I’ve ever met. And I do not want to be the one to tell him that you got hurt, or worse because of me.”

Wendy shook her head. “No.” Just as she finished, Stan reached out and shoved her off the balcony and into the portal.

Dipper stared in wide-eyed disbelief. “Grunkle Stan!”

“Well well well.” Ford’s voice echoed across the room. You put on quite a show there, didn’t you Stanley. I thought you were kidnapped. Turned out you were replaced, just like Mason.”

“Dipper, go.” Stan muttered. “Find your sister.” He turned to face his brother. “Ford, I know you’re in there. ‘Cos this isn’t you. This isn’t the real you.”

“Oh, trust me. Whoever your brother was, I’m not him. And I never was.”

“Guess I’ll just have to punch it outta’ ‘ya then.” Stan charged at his brother.

Dipper ran across the balcony and stopped in his tracks. “Mabel.”

“You killed my brother.” Mabel had a face of incalculable rage. “Now you’re going to die.”

“You won’t. You can’t. You would never hurt your family.”

“Well, I hope your sister isn’t watching.” Mabel smiled. “Because she’s not going to like what comes next.”

Dipper noticed a second too late that she was holding a knife behind her back. Mabel swung it forward and stabbed him through the chest with it. She stabbed him through the heart. He resisted the urge to gag as she gave it one last push, causing it to come out his back. Mabel let go and Dipper fell to the floor, leaning up against the wall.

Stan pushed Ford closer to the edge when he glanced over to his left and saw Mabel driving a knife through Dipper’s chest. It was the distraction Ford needed to shove Stan over the edge. But at the last second, Stan grabbed his foot and pulled his brother down with him.

“This is the end for you, my friend.” Mabel smiled as she looked at Dipper, who was on the brink of death. Suddenly, her headband was pulled off her head. She turned around to see Will smashing it on the floor. “You dare disobey me?”

Will looked at Dipper. “Sorry. It was the only way I could get her here.” He charged at his former master and wrestled with her.

Dipper took sharp, laboured breaths. He’d gotten his Grunkles out, but he’d failed. He failed Mabel. Maybe it was better she stayed in this dimension now. At least here she wouldn’t have to deal with the guilt of killing him. He was vaguely aware of someone kneeling down in front of him.

“Hey, hey.” Will said. “Look at me.”

“Mabel…”

“I got her out. It’s fine.” Will’s one remaining eye glowed blue. “This is gonna hurt, okay?” Dipper nodded faintly. Will put a hand on the knife and was about to pull when he saw something. Dipper had gone still. He checked for a pulse. None. Well, He thought. That’s going to make this considerably harder. He pulled the knife out of the boys chest and threw it on the floor. There was a huge hole carved right through his chest and out the other side. “Revertere, revertere. Cura cura. Ne mortem effugiat eum.” The wound began to close up and a spark appeared on the inside. Dipper jolted awake.

“W-what happened?”

“You died. I’m too weak to fully heal you, so I just closed it up and cast a spell to prevent it from killing you.”

“… so, technically I’m still dead.”

“No. But come on.”

Dipper walked to the balcony and jumped. When he walked through the portal, he saw a room full of people crying, none more than Mabel.

“I killed Dipper…” She sobbed.

“Uh, guys?” Everyone turned to look at him.

“DIPPER!” Mabel ran over to her brother and hugged him tightly. “You’re okay! I’m so sorry. I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I’m fine.”

“Uh, Dipper?” Ford said. “How are you alive?”

“Well, Will healed the wound, then brought me back for a second and stopped it from killing me. He said he would’ve just done it normally but he was too weak.”

“Fascinating.”

Two days later, Dipper sat in McGucket’s Hootenanny Hut whilst the finishing touches were put on his cybernetic hand. McGucket walked over and attached it the metal grafted onto the stump of his arm.

“Right.” The old scientist said. “You should be able to remove it and it’ll be much stronger that your other one. Plus, it has a few surprises.”

“What about when I go back to school?” Dipper asked. “How do I explain this?”

“We should be able to modify it to camouflage itself to a normal hand. Sadly, you won’t have any feeling in it.”

Dipper nodded. “Okay.” He moved his fingers one by one until he began to get used to the movement. McGucket handed him a mug.

“Now, keep tryin’ ‘ta hold these ‘till ‘ya stop breakin’ ‘em.”

Dipper put a hand on the mug, causing it to crack. “Dammit.”

It went on like this for about three hours, until he had finally managed to get a grasp on how to use it. “I think… he went and opened the door, managing to avoid pulling the knob off. “I got it.”

“Good!” Ford congratulated him. “We should be getting back now. Thank you for all your help Fiddleford.”

“Y’all are welcome.”

“Thanks.” Dipper said.

Mabel watched as Dipper held a mug in his robotic hand and managed to completely crush it. “Whoa!” She was in awe. “You can hold stuff without destroying it, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what I was doing all morning.” Dipper smiled as he poked at the scar on his chest through his shirt.

“Dipper… I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“But I chose to stab you!” Mabel stood up. “It was my choice.”

“Technically, it wasn’t.” Dipper thought for a moment. “How about we get Wendy, Candy, Grenda and Pacifica over for a sleepover? Would that cheer you up?”

“…yeah.” Mabel smiled. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

The twins walked up to the small middle-class house that the Northwest family now called home. They had been to see Candy and Grenda, who both couldn’t come. The fact had only made Mabel more miserable. Dipper looked at his sister. Ever since they left dimension /’64 she had just looked miserable. He knocked on the door. Pacifica opened it with an annoyed expression on her face. She was wearing an even subtler version of her ‘subtle outfit.’

“Oh,” She coughed. “Hi.” She looked at Dipper then blushed. “What do you want?”

“Hi Pacifica!” Mabel suddenly perked up. “Do you want to come over for a sleepover at the Mystery Shack with me, Dipper and Wendy?”

“I will not be participating in girly reading time.” Dipper piped up.

“Yeah! I mean… fine. Okay. Whatever.” Pacifica looked over her shoulder before turning back to the twins. “Can I come now?”

“Yeah!”

“Okay, let’s go.”

The three teens walked into the Mystery Shack and looked around. Dipper looked especially curious.

“…Great-Uncle Ford?”

“Grunkle Stan?” Mabel asked.

“Anyone?” They shouted together.

Ten minutes later, Wendy and Soos were standing in the Shack looking around. “So where did they go?” Soos inquired.

“I called them like, three times each!” Mabel panicked.

“So who was taken?”

“Well,” Soos began. “Everyone was in other than me, Wendy and Abuelita. She was at her book club.”

“The security cameras!” Dipper shouted suddenly.

He ran up to Stan’s old office and pulled the jackalope’s antler down and rewound the security tape.

20 minutes earlier

Phil knocked on the door of the Mystery Shack and readied the device. Ford opened the door.

“What do-” Phil cut him off by pressing the button. Ford and everyone else in the Mystery Shack froze in place.

“Come on boys.” Phil smiled. “Let’s get moving.”

Present

Dipper walked down the stairs.

“Well?” Wendy asked.

“It was Aida.”

Mabel gasped. “Well, what now?”

“We need all the help we can get. Someone go get Gideon, he could be useful. Pacifica, are you coming?”

“Ugh, fine. Whatever.”

“I’ll go get Gideon.” Wendy said.

Dipper looked down at his robotic hand, rage filling his face. “It’s time we finish this.”

NRW-HVZHLM URMZOV MVCG XSZKGVI.


	14. The Dirty Half Dozen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Mabel recruit good friends and old enemies in a desperate last stand.

Stan pulled at his restraints to no avail. He couldn’t even pick the locks, they were controlled by a computer terminal. Who else is here? He thought. Let’s see, Melody, Helen and Bob. Where’s Ford? Suddenly, a woman wearing a white flower dress with black hair walked into the room with a smile on her face.

“Hello Stanley.”

“Ugh. Why should I be nice to you? You tried to kill my niece and nephew, ‘ya kidnapped my brother and you caused Dipper to lose an arm. Speakin’ ‘o which, where is Ford?”

“Oh, don’t worry. He’s safe and sound.” Just as she said that, a scream that sounded suspiciously like Ford echoed through the crashed alien ship like an axe through wood.

“Why you little-”

Dipper, Mabel, Wendy, Soos, Pacifica and Gideon stood around the holotable.

“So,” Gideon said. “This woman tried to murder you guys.”

“And caused you to lose an arm.” Pacifica pointed at Dipper.

Dipper nodded. “Yeah. She’s based in the UFO.”

“Why am I even questioning this anymore.” The Northwest heir muttered.

“Back when he was building the portal, Grunkle Ford created a scan of the place. I used it to find a way in.” He projected a full holographic 3D render onto the table.

Soos nodded. “So where is it?”

Dipper pointed to a small cave reaching the wall of the crash site. “The wall is vulnerable here.”

“Are we gonna blow it up?” Mabel asked.

“No. We have a device specifically made to cut through walls with a little noise as possible. Someone just needs to get down there and put it on.”

“So that’s easy then.” Pacifica scoffed.

“Not really.” Dipper paused for a moment before dropping the bomb. “The cave is underwater.”

“…oh.” Pacifica stopped to think for a moment. “Is there any other way in?”

“Well, other than the main entrance… no. And to top it off, we don’t have any scuba diving gear. So whoever goes will have to free swim it. When the wall is out most of the water should drain out, so that’s a plus. Sorta.”

“I’ll do it.” Wendy raised her hand. “I’m the fittest person here.”

“Are ‘ya sure?” Gideon asked.

Wendy nodded. “Whatever it takes.”m

Ford opened his eyes slowly. “Ugh.” He groaned. Everything hurt. Suddenly, Aida walked into the room and looked at her prisoner.

“You ready to tell me where my crystals are, or not?”

“I’d rather die.” Ford said with pure conviction.

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I’m just trying to preserve humanity.”

“You do know that if you succeed, you’ll probably erase yourself out of existence, right?”

Aida smiled. “So? You’re willing to die to ‘save’ the world. Well, so am I. But the difference is, I’m going to stop the problem entirely. You’re just prolonging the inevitable.”

“I know you’re just doing what you think is right.” Ford coughed. “And it’s admirable, but the ends don’t justify the means. So, cool motive, still murder.” He thought for a moment. “Plus, as much as I want them to stay out of danger, Dipper and Mabel will come to rescue my family and I.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to stop them.” She pulled a radio out of her pocket. “Brandt, tell the henchman they have full discretion.”

“You mean shoot to kill.”

Aida turned back to the old scientist. “Whether Dipper and Mabel live or die is entirely up to them.”

“…right.”

Wendy looked at the submerged cave and took a deep breath. Come on. Come on, you can do this.

“Right.” Dipper passed her a circular device with a strap attached to it, which she tied around her waist. “When it’s attached, Peres the button the middle and swim back up. Your clothes’ll be dry, it’s a dry suit after all. Got it?”

The redhead teen nodded. 3… 2… 1… She learned forward and dived into the pit.

“So what do we do now?” Gideon asked.

“We wait, doy!” Mabel responded, wielding her grappling hook. There had only been enough guns for Dipper, Pacifica and Gideon. Wendy was going to use her axe and Soos was just going in with his fists. Plus, Mabel and her grappling hook.

Wendy swam over to the wall, holding her breath. She pulled the device off her waist and jammed it onto the wall. She wasn’t going to be able to hold her breath for much longer. She pressed the button in the centre of it and turned around.

“Come on Wendy!” Soos shouted. “You can do it!”

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” Dipper muttered, worried for his friend. It was funny, he hadn’t even known her that long, yet she was almost as important to him now as Mabel. Turns out sharing life or death situations with someone is a fantastic way to bond with them. Who knew? “She should be up by now. What if someth-” Just as he was about to finish his sentence, Wendy rose up out of the water, gasping for breath. She climbed out just as the water was beginning to drain.

“Come on Gideon.” Dipper said. The pre-teen in question was hanging off the rim of the hole, about a metre off the ground. After some coercing, Gideon let go and dropped to the ground. “See? Not that bad.”

“Hmph. So what’s the plan? How’d y’all suppose we find ‘em?”

“Why we threaten a guard’s life of course.” Dipper smiled as he pointed to the patrolling guard. “Wendy, you’re up.”

Wendy snuck up behind said guard and quickly placed her axe on his throat. “Don’t move. And don’t scream. I’ll let your sorry ass live if you tell us two things.”

“O-o-o-okay-y… what do you want?”

Listening the the guard stutter like he was high was a real wake-up call for Dipper. Is that really what I sound like when I’m reminded of him? Jeez, I never realised it was that bad. Maybe Mum and Dad knowing will help. Yeah, it probably will. Mabel’s great and all, but she’s not exactly a good listener. He turned his attention back to Wendy.

“Tell me where the prisoners are, and where the security room is.”

Dipper looked over at his team. “I forgot to ask, but does anyone know how to put a loop on a security camera?”

Pacifica raised her hand. “It came in handy when I sneaked out of the manor when stuff got a bit too crazy.”

“Good. The security room’ll be packed with guards, so take Gideon and Soos with you. Me, Mabel and Wendy will go free everyone. Speak of the devil.”

Wendy walked up to them after knocking the guard unconscious. “He pointed it out of the map.” She pulled out the small object Dipper had given her. “Security is here.” She pointed at the little red dot. “You’re the arrow.” She passed it to Pacifica.

“You’re coming with me and Mabel.” Dipper said.

Wendy nodded. “Got it. Let’s go kick Aida’s ass.”

Dipper quickly turned back to the other group. “Meet back here, okay?”

As they walked, the male Pines twin contemplated what he would do when he finally confronted Aida. The person who’d sent an assassin after him and Mable, only to kill that same guy just to stop him from talking. The person who made his friend go savage and then killed him. She’d been responsible for him losing and arm. She’d kidnapped his family. She had to pay.

“I think we’re here.” Mabel stopped his train of thought. She heard a deep, coarse voice say something unintelligible. “I think that’s the teleporty guy.”

“Dipper?” Gideon’s voice came through the radio. “The loops are on. We have the security room.”

“Good.” Dipper turned around. “You two take the guards. I have an idea.”

Brandt sat in the prison cell on a chair. He was reading a book. A book that hadn’t even been published yet.

“Hey there jackass.” He looked up to see Dipper standing there with a smug smile on his face. The rest of the Pines family (plus Melody) bore expressions of pure disbelief.

“I was wondering when you’d show up.” The horned creature said, cracking his knuckles.

“I thought for a while what I was going to do when we met again. You did try to murder my entire family after all.”

“And you saved them. You sacrificed yourself for them. Or, you thought you did. For a second. I’ll admit, I admire that.”

“And I’d be willing to do it again if it meant stopping your boss.”

“I don’t doubt that.”

“Then get out of the way.” Dipper said. “Mabel and Wendy are taking on your guards as we speak and they’re doing a pretty good job of it. Yeah, I know that face. This is the moment you realise that you got tricked by a thirteen year-old boy. The moment you knew you fucked up. Cause I’m just a distraction.”

Brandt scowled as he charged at the brunette, only to pass right through him. “…what?”

“I said I’d be willing to die.” Dipper’s smile grew even more smug. “I never said I wanted to. Oh, I’ve always wanted to do this.” He leaned forward and reached out with his right hand. “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” Suddenly, the hologram faded away. The real Dipper was standing in the vents with his cybernetic hand outstretched. “I love this thing.” He muttered as he reached down and punched the grate out. Jumping down, he landed in front of Brandt just as Wendy and Mabel entered the room.

“Dipper!” Bob shouted. “Get us outta here will you?”

“Yeah, just need to deal with this idiot first.”

Brandt charged at the trio with the intent to kill. Dipper jumped out of the way and Wendy hit the charging beast with the butt of her axe whilst Mabel grappling hooked up to the ceiling to provide ‘air support.’ Dipper rushed at Brandt but was quickly knocked aside. Wendy found the red beast in a black suit bearing down on her, before her axe was pulled out of her hand. Brandt went to throw it at Dipper, but was stopped by Mabel. She dropped down and shot her grappling hook at Brandt’s face, but he caught it mid-air and used it to fling the female Pines twin across the room.

Dipper rubbed his head as he got up. He was pretty sure he had a concussion. Suddenly, Brandt jumped at him, axe in hand. He would have cut the boy clean in half had Dipper not projected a holographic shield from his hand at the last second. It was circular and had a pine tree in the middle, a touch he rather liked. The axe bounced off it and clattered to the floor. Brandt quickly grabbed Dipper’s arm and disconnected it. He threw it across the room and began to choke the boy. Suddenly, he was knocked aside by the grappling hook slamming into the side of his face. Dipper got up and coughed several times.

“If you think you’ve won this,” Brandt shook his head. “You’ve got another thing co-” He was cut off when Wendy, who had picked up her axe, chopped hi left arm off. Brandt screamed in pain as the redhead teen walked over and stood next to the two twins. She handed Dipper his arm.

“Hey, maybe I could lend you a hand?”

Dipper chuckled slightly as he reattached it. “Oh my god.”

“Maybe you two should start a club.” Mabel said. “The one-arm club!”

“No. Alright, you… you… whatever you are. Either you leave now and live to tell the tale, or we kill you. Simple as that.” Brandt promptly disappeared in a puff of red smoke.

“Good job everyone!” Melody shouted. “But can you get us out of here?”

“Oh, yeah.” Wendy said as Dipper walked over to the computer terminal. He reached out and his index finger extended into the socket. A moment later, all the restraints popped open.

“Dude, that is sick.” Wendy laughed. “Do you have, like a sleep dart in there or something?”

“It’s a hand. I’m not Inspector Gadget. Wait…” He looked at the four released prisoners. “Where’s Grunkle Ford?”

“I don’t know.” Helen mumbled.

“Well, I think we should get back to the Shack and regroup.” Melody suggested.

Dipper nodded. “Yeah, I agree. Come on, let’s go.”

Aida looked at Ford, who seemed to be on death’s door. “If you just tell me where the crystals are, all this goes away.”

Ford chucked weakly. “You think this is bad? It’s nothing compared to Bill’s torture. He was the ultimate villain. You’re just the next in a long line of bastards that me and/or my family have to beat senseless. You know what that makes you?” He smiled. “Insignificant.”

Suddenly, a henchman walked in. “Ma’am, there’s been a security breach. The prisoners are gone.”

“I told you they’d come.”

Aida’s face contorted to one of pure rage. “Prevent their escape.”

“That was pretty brave of you two.” Helen congratulated her children as they rushed to the rendezvous point.

“Wendy almost drowned!” Mabel said.

“…oh.”

“There it is!” Dipper pointed at the hole in the wall.

“Dipper!” Pacifica shouted as the rest of her team rounded the corner.

“Good work back there.” Dipper smiled. “So, Grunkle St – oh, no.”

Stan rushed through the compound in search for his brother. “FORD!” He shouted. “FORD!”

“Stanley…” Came a weak voice from behind a door. Stan ran into the room and saw Ford a bit worse for the wear.

“Stanford.” He pressed a button on the console and his brother fell to the floor. Stan helped him up and guided him out of the room. “You never stop gettin’ in ‘ta trouble do ‘ya? Though that was supposed to be my job.”

“Yeah, well. Not any – shit.” They we’re surrounded by what was easily a hundred guards.

Aida walked over to them holding a gun. “Tell me where they are,” She pointed it at Stan. “Or he dies.”

“No! Stop. Don’t, I-I’ll tell you.” Just as Ford was about to tell Aida, a gunshot echoed through the hallway and she fell to the floor, clutching her shoulder. Everyone turned to see Dipper standing there holding a gun he had gotten from a fallen guard. All the henchman turned towards him and readied their guns.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Dipper pulled a bomb detonator from his coat. “My friends rigged this place with bombs while we were rescuing everybody. Anyone move and I’ll blow this place so high.”

The lead henchman spoke up. “You wouldn’t.”

“Dipper!” Stan and Ford shouted in unison.

Dipper shrugged. “Everyone else is out. I’ll be saving the world. But how about I offer you a bargain? You let us live, and I give this.” He produced a black and yellow tape-measure from his pocket. “I raided Aida’s room for it. I’ll give it to you and you can all go back to your time.”

“…okay. Drop your weapons guys.”

Dipper tossed the tape to the henchman. “Well, now that’s done with.” He walked over to Aida and looked her dead in the eye. “It’s time for me to end this.”

The Stan twins watched as Dipper reached down and placed his robotic hand on Aida’s chest and pushed. She struggled for breath as the brunette pushed down until he heard a satisfying crack. Aida went still.

Dipper stood up and walked over to his great-uncles. “What? This is just a detonator, I was bluffing. It’s not actually connected to anything.”

Ford struggled for words. He was aware that this would come someday, but he didn’t expect to have to deal with it so soon. “Dipper…”

“I know what you’re going to say. I didn’t enjoy it.” He lied. “I just did what had to be done. I’m not proud of it.”

“Dipper,” Stan said. “After all the harm she’s caused you I find it very hard ‘ta believe that you didn’t even enjoy that a little bit.”

“Maybe a tad.” Dipper muttered. “Come on, the others are waiting on us.”

“Uh, Stan?” Ford asked. “What happened to Brandt?”

“Teleporting guy? He pissed off after Wendy lopped his arm off.”

“Well, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him.”

Helen sat on the Mystery Shack’s front porch drinking Pitt Cola. She was conflicted about the recent news. On one hand, the woman trying to destroy the world was dead. On the other, Dipper had killed her. And it’s not like she was a supernatural creature or anything. She was a human. A human with thought, feelings and emotions. And whilst she was a terrible person, she didn’t have to die. Ford could have rebuilt the memory gun and she could have become a productive member of society, knowing nothing of her evil schemes. Dipper said he took no enjoyment out of it. That it wasn’t personal. But everyone knew he was lying and they couldn’t blame him to be honest. But everyone looked at him differently now. They seemed somewhat less… comfortable wouldn’t even the right word, but the aura around him had changed in some inexplicable way. They same way he had seemed different after getting back from Gravity Falls. He acted the same, but she knew he was different now. After she found out about her children’s adventures, she thought that they weren’t really children any more. Now, that was more true than ever.


	15. The End… For Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Pines return to Piedmont and the truth comes out.

Dipper sat in the car looking out the window wistfully. They were going back to California. Again. He felt the same pain he had first felt when he had gotten on that bus that ended his fateful summer holiday. They’d chosen to celebrate Christmas and New Year in Gravity Falls and get the presents from their parents when they got back. They’d said their goodbyes and after promising to be back in the summer, got in the car and drove away. Dipper looked over at Mabel; she was high as a kite on Mabel JuiceTM but was still somewhat less joyful than she had been in the Falls. Sighing, he decided that the only thing left for him to do was think about the one thing that he really didn’t want to think about: his decision to kill Aida. He told himself that it was the right call, but deep down he knew that he’d made a mistake. And the worst part was that he actually enjoyed it in the moment. When he’d heard that crack, the reality had hit him. He’d kept a cool exterior for Stan and Ford, but at that moment the little voice inside his head was freaking out like never before. He’d noticed the way people looked at him now, even Mabel acted differently. He was glad she was the only evil scientist with good intentions that he’d killed though, as Edmund was safely locked up in Gravity Falls prison. He looked down at his right arm. Ford and McGucket had designed a chip that camouflaged his arm to look real. It still felt cold and dead if you were to touch it, but that was the least of his worries. He had no feeling in it. It was odd, having your hand touch something but feel nothing. Like a glitch in the matrix or something.

“DIPPERDIPPERDIPPERDIPPERDIPPER!” Mabel yelled as she shook her brother violently, shocking him.

“Ahhh!” Dipper quickly composed himself. “Hm. Yeah. Sorry. What is it?”

“We’re back.” Dipper took note of the fact that she hadn’t said that they were back home. Just back.

“Oh.” He muttered, feeling for his gun. Ford had originally prevented him from taking it, but after remember how he was after his days in the portal, he caved.

Mabel sighed. “… Dipper.” She pushed his hand off of the weapon. “It’s bad enough that you feel the need to have it on you all the time, but you don’t need to constantly be grabbing for it. What are you going to do at school? You can’t exactly bring it with you.”

“I never thought about that.” He admitted, choosing not to mention that ever since he had returned to the Falls the gun had not left his person, not even when he was asleep. “Come on, I could use some sleep. I didn’t get any on the journey.” It was late, about eleven o’clock. He walked into his room and sighed. It felt even more alien now than it ever did before.

“Dipper?” Helen said, walking into the room. “You need to get to bed, you can unpack in the morning.”

“When does school start back up again?”

“Your last day off is tomorrow, sweetie. Now, as I said, get your adventuring ass to bed. You’ve had a busy break.”

Dipper smiled. “But not in the way that most people define busy.”

“Yeah, that was an eye-opening experience. Maybe those conspiracy nuts actually have a point.”

“Nah,” Dipper chucked. “They really are crazy. They know absolutely nothing about real supernatural occurrences.”

Helen laughed, but then her smile faded. “If you have a nightmare, you can talk to us. And that goes for Mabel too.”

“Thanks… but it’s easier to talk to Mabel about it. Or someone else that was there.”

“I know. I know I can’t ever fully understand, no matter how much I want to. Bill sounds like a monster. But he’s dead, okay? He can’t hurt you anymore.”

“I know.” Dipper watched as his mother walked out the room, the stress lines that now permanently covered her face visible the reading lamps light. He felt for his gun, which was safely sticking out of his pocket trouser pocket. He had gotten into the habit of sleeping in his clothes, specifically the ones he wore on his last mission to the UFO, just in case. He reached over and pulled his arm off, placing it on his bedside table. He had discovered quickly that it was really annoying to sleep with, so that was his solution.

Helen got into bed with a sigh. “So, that was…”

“Odd.” Bob finished. “Yeah, I mean before they went to the Falls the first time, Dipper was really shy and Mabel couldn’t lie to save her life! Now look at them. She’s a pathological liar that could beat James bloody Bond in a game of cards and Dipper’s a cyborg!”

“He’s… not really, though.”

“He kinda is.”

“…well, he can take it off.”

“Yeah, but there’s still the bit of metal that it attaches to permanently grafted onto what’s left of his wrist!” Bob pointed out.

“Fine. Maybe he is a cyborg.” Helen sighed. “You know, when I was all gung-ho for finding out, I knew it was gonna be kind of crazy, but the truth was just…” She made an explosion sound whilst putting her hands at the sides of her head.

“…mind blowing?”

“Yeah.” She thought for a moment. “I’m worried about them.”

“You should be. They have PTSD, for crying out loud.”

“They’ll be okay, won’t they?” Helen asked, her voice cracking with worry.

“Of course they will, honey.” Bob said, not really sure if he really believed what he was saying.

Two days later, Dipper walked onto the school bus and sat down. He was still racked with guilt and conflict over his recent choices, but he pushed that to the back of his mind. He had more important things to worry about. Like if a magnet could still stick to his hand when when it was camouflaged. Or if people would realise that it wasn’t even real. These were legitimate questions.

“So,” Lance sat down next to him. “I didn’t know you were going back so soon.”

“Sorry,” Dipper responded, happy to see his friend after what felt like an eternity. “We kinda left on short notice.”

“Short notice my arse.” Lance chuckled. “So what did you do?”

Well, Dipper thought. I killed a woman in cold blood, how about you? “Uh, I…” Think Dipper, think! “…not much, to be honest. Just caught up with Wendy and Soos, and saw Grunkle Stan again.” He lied, neglect to mention Ford. “It was fun. How about you?”

“Well, my break was decidedly boring. Got a new phone though.”

Oh yeah? Well mine can go an entire month without charging. He made a mental note to thank McGucket for that again. “Cool.”

“So, do you want to come to my house after this shit-show? I could help you catch up on Trek Wars.”

“Okay.” To be honest, he couldn’t even watch the show in Gravity Falls, not that he’d want to. He could have his own adventure there at any time. His time in Gravity Falls would make a pretty good TV show.

Lance looked at Dipper, who was lost in thought. It seemed like he’d never really been there ever since he got back from Gravity Falls. Like he’d left a part of himself there, or something. “Are you okay? You look ill.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” Dipper responded, gesturing with his hands. Lance noticed that his right arm looked odd. As if someone had perfectly recreated it, but it still looked somewhat off. Like if someone replaced everything in your house with exact replicas.

Dipper stood outside his math class. Trigonometry. Come on Dipper, it’s not that bad. Think, what’s the worst that could come out of it? Well, someone could draw an eye on it. He can’t see through those anymore though. But it’ll remind me of him. He looked over at Mabel. “Are you ready?” He asked, hopeful the answer would be no. Then they wouldn’t have to sit through it.

Mabel nodded. “…yeah. 3, 2, 1 and…”

“Go.” They said in unison. Walking into the class, they looked around. Everything seemed normal. Good. Dipper thought. Come on.

Just as they sat down, Mrs. Roberts walked up to the front of the room. “Right.” She mumbled, obviously miffed that her break was over. Now she had to deal with trouble-makers, goody-two-shoes, people that were just plain annoying for the sake of it and a certain set of twins with PTSD.

Dipper scowled. At least back in Gravity Falls, people understood what it was like. Ford and Gideon understood being tortured by Bill. But not many knew what it was like for those three days. Most of the people were in the Shack or hiding as far away as possible. The people who weren’t were dead, so there was really no one who really understood what he went through. It was a time that he constantly tried to block out of his mind, but never could.

“Get a textbook and turn it to page 264. Just do the questions or whatever.”

Dipper got up and walked to the back of the room, as did everyone else. He closed his eyes, picked up a book and flipped it over. He looked at it. No triangles on the back. Good. Come on Dipper, you can do this. It’s just a shape. A 2-dimensional shape. But so was Bill. No! No, don’t go down that rabbit hole you knucklehead. Come on Dipper, take a breath. You can do this. Yeah. Yeah, I can do this. I can do this. I can’t do this. He got up from his chair and walked to the front of the room as quietly as he could. He hated this part, it was always so embarrassing. “C-c-an-n I-…”

“Just take a minute.” Mrs. Roberts said to the student standing in front of her. There was an odd looking bulge on the left side of his navy blue vest, but she thought nothing of it.

Dipper sat down on the floor outside. He could probably be mistaken for a ghost at this point. He took a breath as Mabel walked out of the room and sat down next to him.

“Well,” She muttered. “That was-”

“-horrible.”

“… yeah.” Mabel sighed. “How long did we last this time?”

“About thirty seconds. I think.”

“I deserve this.”

“What?!” Dipper snapped. “No you don’t.”

“But it was my fault. We wouldn’t even be like this if it wasn’t for me! I caused it.”

“No. You got tricked. It wasn’t your fault. The only person that deserves this is me. I wasn’t:t tricked into doing something bad. I chose to.”

“I don’t know whether you made the right choice or the wrong choice, bro-bro. But that one mistake does not make you a bad person.”

“I guess we’re both failures, then.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

Dipper knocked on the front door to his Lance house. Lance’s little sister opened it.

“What do you want?” She said accusingly.

“Hey, Roxy. Is Lance here?”

“Dipper, fuck off!” Roxy swore.

“Hey! Language. You’re only what, nine? Jesus.”

“And a half.”

“Roxy, shut up.” Lance sighed walked into Dipper’s field of vision. “Come in.”

“So how many episodes do I have to catch up on?” Dipper asked.

“Fourteen..”

“And they’re forty minutes each, so that’s fourteen times forty which is…”

“Nine hours and twenty minutes.”

“… you figured that out just in case I asked, didn’t you?”

“No!” Lance scoffed. “Definitely not.” They walked into the living room and turned on the TV.

“Previously on Disney’s Trek Wars.” The announcer said.

Two hours later, Roxy walked into the room. “Lance, I going to the park.”

“Why are you telling me about it then? Can’t you see we’re in the middle of an important scene?”

“‘Cos Mum told me to tell you when she wasn’t in.”

“Alright, alright. You can go to the park.” He turned back to Dipper. “Sisters.”

“I can’t say I agree with that comment.”

“Well, obviously. You and Mabel are joined at the bloody hips. You’re so close with each other it’s almost nauseating.”

Dipper pulled his vest off and laid it on the floor. “It is really hot today. And why do I have to keep cleaning these? It’s like dirt builds up all throughout the day.” He wiped his glasses on his shirt.

“You think this is bad? You have never even seen rain worthy of the term ‘hoofing it down.’”

“I’ve seen my fair share of crazy weather.” Dipper muttered. Blood rain comes to mind. He thought. Or wet fire. Weirdmageddon was well… weird. “I’m going to the toilet. I’ll be back in a minute.” He placed his glasses down on the sofa. “I will clean them in a minute.”

“‘Kay.” Lance responded as he paused the TV. He reached over to put his friend’s glasses on the armrest, when he noticed something. There was a hole in the right leg. It looked like a headphone jack. That’s… odd. Glasses definitely don’t usually have that. I wonder what happens if I plug it in? He walked over to his computer and did that. Some text appeared on the screen. It read, ‘View Latest Recording?’ Recording? Lance thought. These are like, spy glasses or some shit. He pressed yes.

“Well,” Recording Dipper said. It was a first-person POV, but it was definitely him. There was a woman in a white bloodstained dress laying on the floor clutching her shoulder next to two identical old men. “Now that’s done with.” Dipper moved over to the woman. “It’s time for me to end this.” A robotic hand reached down and crushed the woman’s chest.

Lance pressed stop on the recording and looked on in horror. He placed the glasses back on the armrest, shaken by what he saw.

“… Lance?” Dipper said.

Lance turned around and grabbed at the vest sitting on the floor. There was a gun in there. A gun! He pulled it out and pointed it at his friend. “Get back.”

Dipper held his hands up. “What did I do?”

“You killed that woman. I saw it on your bloody spy glasses.”

Dipper immediately seemed to age about five years. “I can explain.” He stammered. “I had a very good reason.”

“Was that because you’re a psychopath? Is that why?”

“No! No. Just put the gun down and I’ll explain.” Dipper pleaded as he walked towards Lance.

“No!” Lance shouted as he fired at Dipper’s right hand. The bolt bounced off it and ricocheted around the room. Lance got up slowly.

“I should have told you.” Dipper muttered. “Here.” He handed him a blue journal with a silver pine tree on the cover.

Lance looked at his friend with an expression of disbelief on his face. “So that’s it. You can’t even be arsed telling me, so you get me to read this instead.”

“I would… but I don’t… want to relive it. Some of the events were pretty… pretty horrifying.”

“Okay.”

Continued in the Outsider


End file.
